worsted
/ˈwʊs.tɪd/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.42 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
simple past and past participle of worst
Example Sentences
- "An old ſet-ſtitch’d chair, valanced and fringed around with party-colour’d worſted bobs, ſtood at the bed’s head, oppoſite to the ſide where my father’s head reclined."
- "[T]he kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again; […]"
- ""Yes, young people are usually blind to everything but their own wishes, and seldom imagine how much those wishes cost others," said Mrs Garth. She did not mean to go beyond this salutary general doctrine, and threw her indignation into a needless unwinding of her worsted, knitting her brow at it with a grand air."
- "Finally he took a ball of worsted and tied strings of it across the back passage and across the opposite door."
- "[T]he undertaker’s wife opened a side door, and pushed Oliver down a steep flight of stairs into a stone cell, damp and dark, forming the ante-room to the coal-cellar, and denominated “the kitchen,” wherein sat a slatternly girl in shoes down at heel, and blue worsted stockings very much out of repair."
- "He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck—Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge—an ornament—a charm—a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it?"
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: worstede
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈwʊs.tɪd/
- British English: /ˈwʊs.tɪd/