muslin

CEFRB2

/ˈmʌz.lɪn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A light, loosely woven cotton fabric.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Any of a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.

Examples

  • Velvet and muslin are two very different types of fabric.

  • […] my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.

  2. Any of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.

  3. A dressmaker's pattern made from inexpensive cloth for fitting.

More examples

In context

  • A bleached or unbleached thin white cotton cloth, unprinted and undyed. [Nineteen varieties are thereafter listed.]

  • "That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm—who was she?” asked the fascinating student.

  • Other very different styles of fabric are now indifferently called muslins, and the term is used differently on the respective sides of the Atlantic.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She bought a lightweight cotton blank to make comfortable summer dresses for very hot days.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.