muslin
/ˈmʌz.lɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.64 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.
American usage; Uncountable
noun
Any of a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.
Uncountable
noun
Woven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
American usage; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "[…] my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should."
- "A bleached or unbleached thin white cotton cloth, unprinted and undyed. [Nineteen varieties are thereafter listed.]"
- "It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar."
- "Other very different styles of fabric are now indifferently called muslins, and the term is used differently on the respective sides of the Atlantic."
- "Fitting this pattern is tricky, so we recommend you make a muslin first."
- ""That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm—who was she?” asked the fascinating student."
Etymology
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."). Doublet of mousseline.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Uncountable
- American usage
- Countable
Inflected Forms
muslins (plural)
muselin (alternative)