woad

The plant Isatis tinctoria.countableusually

• Woad is one of those plants which yield the deep blue colouring matter so greatly valued in the arts — Indigo.
• Woad was then placed on the regular shopping list of alternative crops.

The blue vat dye made from the leaves of the plant through partial drying and fermentation.countableuncountableusually

• But in the middle of the sixteenth century indigo was introduced from the East Indies: and in the seventeenth century its use became extended, and supplanted that of woad.
• Huge quanitities of alum and woad were disembarked each year at Southampton.

To plant or cultivate woad.

• Such land was usually woaded for two, three or four years and then corned,[…].
• He planted woad on it, and engaged a person from the north to manage it; and the produce was so abundant as to afford immense profit. I believe he only woaded two years, and then let it.

To dye with woad.

• This wool, when scowered, weighed 50 lbs.; when woaded blue, and picked, 48 lbs.