Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various sturdy cotton fabrics of plain weave.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Cotton cloth of different kinds finely made and finished for wearing-apparel, the term being used variously at different times and places.
  • noun A material somewhat stouter than India muslin, used for women's dresses, plain or printed with colored patterns, or having a slight dotted pattern woven in the stuff. Also jaconet and organdie, according to its fineness.
  • noun In some parts of the United States, cotton cloth used for shirts, other articles of wearing-apparel, bedding, etc.
  • noun One of several different moths: a collectors' name.
  • noun Muslin with figures printed in color on it.
  • Made of muslin: as, a muslin dress.
  • noun A general term for a vessel's Canvas.

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

  • noun A thin cotton, white, dyed, or printed. The name is also applied to coarser and heavier cotton goods. In sheeting, muslin is not as finely woven as percale.
  • noun See Cambric.
  • noun a light woolen fabric for women's dresses. See Delaine.

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

  • noun Any of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.
  • noun US Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.
  • noun A term used for a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen. (US) Woven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
  • noun A dressmaker's pattern made from inexpensive cloth for fitting.

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

  • noun plain-woven cotton fabric

Etymologies

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

[French mousseline, from Italian mussolina, from Mussolo, Mosul, Iraq, from Arabic (al-)Mawṣil, from mawṣil, place of joining, from waṣala, to join; see wṣl in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French mousseline, from Italian mussolina, from Mussolo ("Mosul"), that is Mosul in northern Iraq (compare 1875 Knight, Edward H., Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, V2 p1502: "Muslins are so called from Moussol in India.")

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Examples

Comments

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  • Beautifully remembered here.

    January 20, 2009

  • Jeopardy taught me last night that muslin is named for Mosul, Iraq. (Backed up by the wiki.)

    January 28, 2009