Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Embroidery with porcupine-quills, such as that made by the North American Indians. See Canadian embroidery, under Canadian.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Sometimes the Indian will deck his "medicine-bundle" with fanciful trinkets and quill-work At other times the "bundle" is kept forever out of the sight of all uninterested persons, and is altogether unadorned.

    Indian Why Stories 1915

  • Sometimes the Indian will deck his "medicine-bundle" with fanciful trinkets and quill-work At other times the "bundle" is kept forever out of the sight of all uninterested persons, and is altogether unadorned.

    Indian Why Stories Frank Bird Linderman 1903

  • Few of us had won ours yet, and his was man's size, of white deerskin and colored quill-work.

    The Trail Book Mary Hunter Austin 1901

  • The women wore short gowns, or long, full jackets, and petticoats; and their moccasins were like those of squaws, ornamented with beautiful quill-work.

    Heroes of the Middle West The French Mary Hartwell Catherwood 1874

  • The faces of many girls were brilliant with vermilion; others were blacked, their robes, leggings, and skin dresses glittering with beads and quill-work.

    The old Santa Fe trail The Story of a Great Highway Henry Inman 1868

  • I do not ask you to send me _The Una_, for the dollar must go with the request, and the dollar has yet to be earned by _quill-work_, a task quite as hard as was work when a child at the _quill-wheel_, winding yarn from the reel.

    History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I Matilda Joslyn Gage 1863

  • All ignorant of the poor maniac's arrival, for the news had not yet spread, the mother of Little Beaver sat embroidering a moccasin with dyed quill-work.

    The Crew of the Water Wagtail 1859

  • Over his shoulders he slung a powder-horn and shot-pouch, the latter tastefully embroidered with dyed quill-work, A pair of deer-skin mittens, having a little bag for the thumb, and a large bag for the fingers, completed his costume.

    The Young Fur Traders 1859

  • Next he drew on his little legs a pair of blue cloth leggings, which were ornamented with beads, and clothed his feet in new moccasins, embroidered, like the coat, with quill-work.

    The Red Man's Revenge A Tale of The Red River Flood 1859

  • Over his shoulders he slung a powder-horn and shot-pouch, the latter tastefully embroidered with dyed quill-work.

    The Young Fur Traders 1859

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