CALICO • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Calico

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/kˈæləkˌoʊ/ Listen

noun

Calico n. (pl. calicoes)

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".

Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern. Note: In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.

Calico bass (Zool.), 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.

adjective

Calico adj. 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.)

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Etymology of 'Calico'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Calico" Quotes from Famous Books

... lanterns, of the shape of cylindrical concertinas, hanging in a row from a slack string, decorated the doorway of what Schomberg called grandiloquently "my concert-hall." In his desperate mood Heyst ascended three steps, lifted a calico curtain, and ...

— Victory • Joseph Conrad

... with the rasped redness of tears around her eyes and mouth, clad in her blue calico wrapper, received them in her best parlor. Eva had made a fire in the best parlor stove early that morning. "Folks will be comin' in all day, I expect," said she, speaking with nervous catches ...

— The Portion of Labor • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... always a possibility of aid from one or other of the acquaintances whom he sought. The net result of the night's campaign was half-a-pint of 'four-half.' The front of a draper's shop in Kennington tempted him sorely; he passed it many times, eyeing the rolls of calico and flannel exposed just outside the doorway. But either courage failed him or there was no really good opportunity. Midnight found him still without means of retiring to that familiar lodging in the New Cut. At half-past twelve sleet began to fall. He discovered a very dark corner of a very ...

— Demos • George Gissing

... throw some article in the grave, either food, clothing, or other material. There was no rule stating the nature of what was to be added to the collection, simply a requirement that something must be deposited, if it were only a piece of soiled and faded calico. After the corpse was lowered into the grave some brave addressed the dead, instructing him to walk directly westward, that he would soon discover moccasin tracks, which he must follow until he came to a great river, which is the ...

— A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians • H.C. Yarrow

... generally prove the dearest in the end. The following rules may assist you in this respect, if under the necessity of relying upon your own judgment. Be careful, in purchasing articles, such as linen, calico, &c., for a specific purpose, to have it the proper width. A great deal of waste may be incurred, by inattention ...

— The Ladies' Work-Table Book • Anonymous

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