1. 1  a product of simple manual skill, as a plaited leather cord for the neck or a knife sheath, made typically by a camper or a scout. 2  work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy. 3  a project funded by the federal government out of political favoritism that is of no real value to the community or the nation.
Unfurling fiddlehead fern frond. A frond is a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group. Other botanists allow the term frond to also apply to the large leaves of cycads and palms (Arecaceae).
Fern, any of several nonflowering vascular plants that possess true roots, stems, and complex leaves and that reproduce by spores. They belong to the lower vascular plant division Pteridophyta, having leaves usually with branching vein systems; the young leaves usually unroll from a tight fiddlehead, or crozier.