creel

Etymology

From Middle English crele, possibly from an Old French root *creille, variant of greille (compare French grille), from Latin crāticula. Alternatively, this word may have originally been of Scottish origin.

noun

1. A woven basket, especially a wicker basket and especially as follows:
   1. (fishing) An osier basket that anglers use to hold fish.
      Return with a creel of trout for supper. 1895, R. D. Blackmore, Slain By The Doones, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 6
      Her great creel forehead-slung, she wanders nigh, Easing the heavy strap with gnarled, brown fingers 1897, William Henley, In Fisherrow
   2. (chiefly historical) Such a basket slung as a backpack for cargo, especially in times and places with limited or nonexistent wheeled transport, as for example among peasants in mountainous regions.
      1. (chiefly historical) Such a basket slung on a pack animal; a pannier.
2. (textile making) A bar or set of bars with skewers for holding paying-off bobbins, as in the roving machine, throstle, and mule.

verb

1. (transitive) To place (fish) in a creel.