Adjacent Words

Calico definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CALICO, n. [said to be from Calicut, in India.] Cotton cloth. In England, white or unprinted cotton cloth is called calico. In the United States, calico is printed cotton cloth, having not more than two colors. I have never heard this name given to the unprinted cloth. Calico was originally imported from India, but is now manufactured in Europe and the United States.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: made of calico or resembling calico in being patterned; "calico dresses"; "a calico cat"
2: having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly; "a jester dressed in motley"; "the painted desert"; "a particolored dress"; "a piebald horse"; "pied daisies" [syn: motley, calico, multicolor, multi-color, multicolour, multi-colour, multicolored, multi- colored, multicoloured, multi-coloured, painted, particolored, particoloured, piebald, pied, varicolored, varicoloured] n
1: coarse cloth with a bright print

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -coes or -cos) Etymology: Calicut, India Date: 1578 1. a. cotton cloth imported from India b. British a plain white cotton fabric that is heavier than muslin c. any of various cheap cotton fabrics with figured patterns 2. a blotched or spotted animal; especially one that is predominantly white with red and black patches • calico adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. (pl. -oes or US -os) 1 a cotton cloth, esp. plain white or unbleached. 2 US a printed cotton fabric. --adj. 1 made of calico. 2 US multicoloured, piebald. Etymology: earlier calicut f. Calicut in India

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Calico Cal"i*co, a. Made of, or having the appearance of, calico; -- often applied to an animal, as a horse or cat, on whose body are large patches of a color strikingly different from its main color. [Colloq. U. S.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Calico Cal"i*co, n.; pl. Calicoes. [So called because first imported from Calicut, in the East Indies: cf. F. calicot.] 1. Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. [Eng.] The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. --Beck (Draper's Dict. ). 2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern. Note: In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric. Calico bass (Zo["o]l.), an edible, fresh-water fish (Pomoxys sparaides) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; -- called also calicoback, grass bass, strawberry bass, barfish, and bitterhead. Calico printing, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(calicoes) Calico is plain white fabric made from cotton. N-MASS

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. [Eng.] Cotton cloth. 2. [U. S.] Print, printed cotton cloth.