cambric

English

Morning blouse made of cambric

Etymology

From Cambrai, a French commune where it was manufactured.

Noun

cambric (countable and uncountable, plural cambrics)

1. A finely-woven fabric made originally from linen but often now from cotton.

   Synonym: batiste

   • 1634 (first performance), William D’avenant [i.e., William Davenant], The Wits: A Comedie; […], published 1636; republished in Two Excellent Plays: […], London: […] G. Bedel, and T[homas] Collins, […], 1665, →OCLC, Act I, page 1:

     Could a Taff'ta ſcarf, a long Eſtridge vvhing, / A ſtiffe Iron Doublet, and a Brazeel Pole / Tempt thee from Cambrick ſheets, fine active Thighs, / From Caudles vvhere the precious Amber ſvvims?

   • 1851 George Dodd, Charles Knight - Knight's Cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851

     Scotch cambric, now largely manufactured, is a kind of imitation cambric, made from fine hard-twisted cotton.

   • 1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 14, in The Horse and His Boy, Collins, published 1999:

     His upper tunic was of white cambric, as fine as a handkerchief, so that the bright red tunic beneath it showed through.

Alternative forms

• cambrick, cambricke (both obsolete)

Derived terms

• cambric tea

Translations

finely-woven fabric — see batiste

Further reading

• cambric on Wikipedia.Wikipedia