linsey-woolsey love

Definitions

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

  • noun A coarse, woven fabric of wool and cotton or of wool and linen.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A coarse and stout material of which the warp is linen and the woof woolen.
  • noun A similar material into which cotton enters either with or without linen.
  • noun Inferior fabrics of doubtful or uncertain materials: a term of depreciation.
  • noun Anything unsuitably mixed; a farrago of nonsense; jargon; gibberish.
  • Made of linen and wool mixed.
  • Of different and unsuitable parts; neither one thing nor another; ill-assorted.

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

  • noun Cloth made of linen and wool, mixed.
  • noun obsolete Jargon.
  • adjective Made of linen and wool; hence, of different and unsuitable parts; mean.

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

  • noun a fabric made of both linen and wool.

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

  • noun a rough fabric of linen warp and wool or cotton woof

Etymologies

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

[Middle English linsiwolsie : alteration of linen, linen; see linen + wolle, wool; see wool.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Diminutive of linen and wool. See -y, -ey.

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Examples

  • By “Indian dress” he meant costume common to whites as well as Indians in the west: moccasins, leggings, breechclout, and a hunting shirt, a knee-length smock of linen, wool, or linsey-woolsey, drab and durable.

    George Washington’s First War David A. Clary 2011

  • By “Indian dress” he meant costume common to whites as well as Indians in the west: moccasins, leggings, breechclout, and a hunting shirt, a knee-length smock of linen, wool, or linsey-woolsey, drab and durable.

    George Washington’s First War David A. Clary 2011

  • By “Indian dress” he meant costume common to whites as well as Indians in the west: moccasins, leggings, breechclout, and a hunting shirt, a knee-length smock of linen, wool, or linsey-woolsey, drab and durable.

    George Washington’s First War David A. Clary 2011

  • Other textiles boast names utterly mysterious to us, opening up a lost world of camblet and fustian, susy and cherryderry, calimanco and linsey-woolsey.

    Threads of feeling Kathryn Hughes 2010

  • By “Indian dress” he meant costume common to whites as well as Indians in the west: moccasins, leggings, breechclout, and a hunting shirt, a knee-length smock of linen, wool, or linsey-woolsey, drab and durable.

    George Washington’s First War David A. Clary 2011

  • She hid the papers for General Washington under the bodice of her linsey-woolsey dress, and fastened her neckerchief over the bodice.

    History of American Women Maggiemac 2009

  • *Some old timers add linsey-woolsey or cotton britches winter as the last one, meaning the day you can stop wearing the long underwear.

    Winters Of Spring « Fairegarden 2009

  • I had put on my linsey-woolsey dress, as the roads might at times be dusty and the few articles I needed made only a small bundle.

    History of American Women Maggiemac 2009

  • The lady-mother still distributeth tracts, and knitteth Berlin linsey-woolsey.

    Burlesques 2006

  • The lady-mother still distributeth tracts, and knitteth Berlin linsey-woolsey.

    Novels by Eminent Hands 2006

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