Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A coarse woolen fabric, yarn, or ribbon binding.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Flock or wadding of any fibrous material for stuffing, bombasting, and the like, used in the fifteenth century and later.
  • noun A kind of lint for dressing wounds.
  • noun Wool used for coarse embroidery, nearly like the modern crewel.
  • noun A kind of worsted tape or ribbon.
  • noun A kind of coarse woolen or worsted stuff. The variegated stuff used by the Highlanders of Scotland.
  • noun A coarse serge.
  • noun The larva of the caddis-fly. See caddis-worm.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of worsted lace or ribbon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The larva of a caddice fly that generally live in cylindrical cases, open at each end, and covered externally with debris.
  • noun A rough woolen cloth; caddice
  • noun A kind of worsted lace or ribbon.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from Middle English cadace, cotton wool (from Anglo-Norman, from Old Provençal cadarz) and from French cadis, woolen cloth (from Old Provençal).]

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Examples

  • "Oh, please, sir, you said there was another cousin called the caddis-worm."

    Little Busybodies The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, Beetles, and Other Busybodies Julia Moody 1919

  • Smaller nymphs such as caddis pupae and micro mayflies are producing in the upper drifts with stonefly nymphs and large rubber legs producing in the lower drifts.

    A Secret Streamer Stragey Tim Romano 2007

  • Many small creatures such as caddis-worms will eat the ova, and therefore a careful watch should be kept upon the hatching trays as it is marvellous how such creatures find their way in, in spite of all precautions.

    Amateur Fish Culture Charles Edward Walker

  • I liked where they were planted because halfway across the little spring creek, trout sometimes lined up to feed on surface insects such as caddis and later the occasional sulfur.

    unknown title 2009

  • The Wulff is a great pattern, but my favorite pattern is a tan caddis due to our HUGE caddis hatches almost all year.

    The Mighty Jitterbug 2009

  • I promise. vtbluegrass ... a caddis with a yellow foam post that rises over the wing so semi-blind anglers (no name) can track it in the riffles.

    It's All About Habitat 2009

  • My 3 yr. old daughter hooked a fish and began reeling it in, but when her hook came up it was attached to a prince nymph which was dropped below an elk hair caddis which was firmly lodged in the mouth of an albino rainbow trout.

    Treasure Snaggin' 2009

  • I promise. vtbluegrass ... a caddis with a yellow foam post that rises over the wing so semi-blind anglers (no name) can track it in the riffles.

    It's All About Habitat 2009

  • My 3 yr. old daughter hooked a fish and began reeling it in, but when her hook came up it was attached to a prince nymph which was dropped below an elk hair caddis which was firmly lodged in the mouth of an albino rainbow trout.

    Treasure Snaggin' 2009

  • The Wulff is a great pattern, but my favorite pattern is a tan caddis due to our HUGE caddis hatches almost all year.

    The Mighty Jitterbug 2009

Comments

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  • "... for the first signs of spring: the golden eagles followed by snow buntings, and then the ruby-crowned kinglets; hatches of caddis flies and mosquitoes on which the birds depend for food..."

    —James Campbell, The Final Frontiersman (New York and London: Atria Books, 2004), 139

    September 17, 2008

  • "It was a pity that she hadn't a casting rod or tied flies—but still worth a try. Caddis flies weren't the only things that rose hungry at twilight, and voracious trout had been known to strike at almost anything that floated in front of them...."

    —Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 603

    February 1, 2010

  • "Dark-green water in lakes like this, and salt water with big waves and a fishy smell; and water coming loud over a dam, and water in brooks all full of caddis houses and green moss. And water in swamps with cat-tails growing out of it. And yellow mud-puddle water that you can wade in, with the mud as soft as butter between your toes."

    The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright, p 129 of the 2008 paperback edition

    July 2, 2011