Reedlike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the slender, hollow, flexible form characteristic of a reed plant growing in marshes or along water
2. Shaped or looking like a tall grass stem that bends easily, with a thin, hollow and pliant appearance
3. Resembling the long, slim, jointed stalks of marsh grasses in appearance, flexibility or sound

Etymology: "Reedlike" is a plain compound built from two English words: "reed," the tall, hollow-stemmed grass that grows in marshes and at water's edge, and the suffix "-like," which attaches to nouns to mean "resembling" or "having the qualities of." Put together, the word describes anything that looks like or behaves like a reed, such as a slender, flexible stem or a thin, bending form. The suffix is the more productive half of the pair. English has long combined "-like" with nouns to make adjectives on the fly, which is why writers can coin a term like "reedlike" whenever a comparison needs one, without any single moment of invention. The word therefore has no famous coiner or dramatic shift in meaning; its history is simply the history of its two parts, joined in English.

Synonyms: reedy