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Definition of birdlime : 1. An extremely adhesive viscid substance, usually made of the middle bark of the holly, by boiling, fermenting, and cleansing it. When a twig is smeared with this substance it will hold small birds which may light upon it. Hence: Anything which insnares.
2. To smear with birdlime; to catch with birdlime; to insnare.

Synonyms:

calx, calcium hydroxide, quicklime, linden, lime tree, burnt lime, fluxing lime, basswood, calcium oxide, caustic lime, unslaked lime, lime hydrate, hydrated lime, calcined lime, lime, linden tree, slaked lime, calcium hydrate

Usage examples:

• A thin wood is usually the spot chosen, and, under a tree at a little distance from the others, a cabin is erected, and there are only such branches left on the tree as are necessary for the placing of the birdlime, and which are covered with it. - "The Book of Household Management", Mrs. Isabella Beeton.
• Countess Lenzdorff smiled somewhat maliciously when Frau von Norbin, caught at last by this benevolent birdlime, plunged into a conversation with Frau von Geroldstein upon the most practical mode of nursing children. - "Countess Erika's Apprenticeship", Ossip Schubin.
• Another remarkable incident was, that during her whole pregnancy she constantly longed for everything she saw; nor could be satisfied with her wish unless she enjoyed it clandestinely; and as nature, by true and accurate observers, is remarked to give us no appetites without furnishing us with the means of gratifying them; so had she at this time a most marvellous glutinous quality attending her fingers, to which, as to birdlime, everything closely adhered that she handled. - "The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great", Henry Fielding.