Definitions

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

  • noun A coarse, twilled cotton fabric, often blue, traditionally used for overalls and work clothes and now used for jeans and casual wear.
  • noun Pants or another garment made of this fabric.
  • noun A similar but finer fabric used in draperies and upholstery.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A colored twilled cotton material used largely for overalls.

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

  • noun A coarse cotton drilling used for overalls, etc.

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

  • noun A textile often made of cotton with a distinct diagonal pattern.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (usually plural) close-fitting trousers of heavy denim for manual work or casual wear
  • noun a coarse durable twill-weave cotton fabric

Etymologies

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

[French (serge) de Nîmes, (serge) of Nîmes, after Nîmes, France.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the French phrase serge de Nîmes ("serge from Nîmes"), after the French town of Nîmes, where denim fabric was originally produced.

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Examples

Comments

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  • The material used to make jeans (and other garments). From the French Coton de Nimes.

    December 22, 2007

  • Demon Denim by George F Will

    April 23, 2009

  • See citation on serge de Nîmes.

    April 18, 2011