Definitions

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

  • noun A twilled cloth of worsted or worsted and wool, often used for suits.
  • transitive verb To overcast (the raw edges of a fabric) to prevent unraveling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An obsolete variant of search.
  • noun See cerge.
  • noun An obsolete variant of searce.
  • noun A woolen cloth in use throughout the middle ages, apparently of coarser texture than say.
  • noun A kind of twilled fabric, woven originally of silk, but now commonly of worsted. It is remarkably strong and durable. Silk serges are used chiefly for tailors' lining.

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

  • noun A woolen twilled stuff, much used as material for clothing for both sexes.
  • noun a twilled silk fabric used mostly by tailors for lining parts of gentlemen's coats.
  • noun A large wax candle used in the ceremonies of various churches.

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

  • noun A large wax candle used in some church ceremonies.
  • noun a type of worsted cloth

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

  • noun a twilled woolen fabric

Etymologies

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

[Middle English sarge, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *sārica, from Latin sērica (vestis), silken (clothing), feminine of sēricus, silken, from Greek sērikos, of the Seres, silken, from Sēres, a people of eastern Asia, perhaps China.]

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

[Back formation from serging, type of overcast stitch, from serge.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French cierge.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French serge, replacing an older borrowing from Middle French sarge < Old French < Vulgar Latin *sarica < Latin sērica.

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Examples

  • In no way your argument 'troop serge' is working, is any good for that poor country.

    McCain releases debut general election ad 2008

  • The swing-door creaked, and in the doorway appeared a rather short young Jew with a big beak-like nose, with a bald patch surrounded by rough red curly hair; he was dressed in a short and very shabby reefer jacket, with rounded lappets and short sleeves, and in short serge trousers, so that he looked skimpy and short-tailed like an unfledged bird.

    The Bishop and Other Stories Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 1882

  • Just think, in 500 years' time it could be part of the global language, like the cloth originally known as serge de Nimes, which makes up over 90 percent of the world's jeans.

    Fancy that - a computer bag which keeps the machine powered up 2011

  • Just think, in 500 years' time it could be part of the global language, like the cloth originally known as serge de Nimes, which makes up over 90 percent of the world's jeans.

    Fancy that - a computer bag which keeps the machine powered up 2011

  • My dress wuz a cream buntin ', lak what dey calls serge dese days.

    Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 4 Work Projects Administration

  • Of course, considering the shortness of the time, it would be impossible: yet it seems odd, out of keeping, that she should still be wearing that soft blue serge, which is associated with so many happy hours.

    Molly Bawn Margaret Wolfe Hamilton

  • Then her beautiful locks are submitted to the tonsure; and to signify her deadness forever to the world, she is clothed in a dress of coarse grey cloth, called serge, in which she is to pass the miserable remnant of her days.

    Life in the Grey Nunnery at Montreal Sarah J. Richardson

  • There is alsoe a square Court with Penthouses round where the Malters are wth Mault and oat meal, but the serge is the Chief manufacture, There is a prodigious quantety of their serges they never bring into the market but are in hired roomes wch are noted for it, for it would be impossible to have it altogether.

    Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary 1888

  • The pen had signed some important treaty, and the serge was a fragment of a flag that had been borne triumphant from a field where a nation's destinies had been sealed.

    Expositions of Holy Scripture Alexander Maclaren 1868

  • The women card, the children spin, the men weave; and each cottage is a little manufactory of drugget and serge, which is taken to market in spring, and sold in the low-country towns.

    The Huguenots in France Samuel Smiles 1858

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