At what point did these exchanges also become mutual alliance, not justdistafffiliation?
From theCambridge English Corpus
Tend to your own tasks / thedistaffand the loom, and keep the women / working hard as well.
From theCambridge English Corpus
Powerful women are set against domestic ones, broomstick againstdistaff.
From theCambridge English Corpus
Maternal influence did not much interest contemporaries usually, unless some obvious connection could be established, or possibly where the connections on thedistaffside were more impressive and influential.
From theCambridge English Corpus
A further difference with the plains shepherds consisted in the gender division of labour: the men were usually spinners, and carried a portabledistaff, while the women wove.
From theCambridge English Corpus
I am delighted that my noble friend is to put thedistaffside of the argument when she winds up the debate.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
She is represented in art with a shepherd's crook or with adistaff; with a watchdog, or a sheep; or with flowers in her apron.
From
Wikipedia
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Thedistaffand spindle are symbols of womanly labour.
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Wikipedia
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In the north, the goddess could manifest herself as the mistress of animals, grain,distaffand loom, household, and life and death.
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One still recognized use of the term is in horse racing, in which races limited to female horses are referred to asdistaffraces.
From
Wikipedia
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In each of them the female figure depicted is holding a cross-shaped staff, interpreted as adistaff.
From
Wikipedia
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Cotton threadspun from cotton by womenusing thedistaffcrafted by menand abaca fiber are commonly used.
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Wikipedia
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Until the spinning wheel was invented in the 14th century, all spinning was done withdistaffand spindle.
From
Wikipedia
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Thedistaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women's work.
From
Wikipedia
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Hand-loom is a major occupation among thedistaffpopulation of the villages.
From
Wikipedia
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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.