Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Distaff

Dis′taff, n.; pl. Distaffs (#), rarely Distaves (#). [OE. distaf, dysestafe, AS. distaef; cf. LG. diesse the bunch of flax on a distaff, and E. dizen. See Staff.] 1. The staff for holding a bunch of flax, tow, or wool, from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand.

I will the distaff hold; come thou and spin. Fairfax.

2. Used as a symbol of the holder of a distaff; hence, a woman; women, collectively.

His crown usurped, a distaff on the throne. Dryden.

Some say the crozier, some say the distaff was too busy. Howell.

☞ The plural is regular, but Distaves occurs in Beaumont & Fletcher.

Descent by distaff, descent on the mother's side. — Distaff Day, or Distaff's Day, the morrow of the Epiphany, that is, January 7, because working at the distaff was then resumed, after the Christmas festival; — called also Rock Day, a distaff being called a rock. Shipley.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.