| Cym V.iii.34 | [Posthumus to Lord, of the youths' nobleness] which could have turned / A distaff to a lance [i.e. made a woman fight] |
| KL IV.ii.17 | [Gonerill to Edmund] I must change arms at home and give the distaff / Into my husband's hands |
| TN I.iii.97 | [Sir Toby to Sir Andrew, of his hair] it hangs like flax on a distaff |
| WT I.ii.37 | [Hermione to Leontes, of Polixenes and Bohemia] We'll thwack him hence with distaffs |