tweed

CEFRB2

/twiːd/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A thick woolen cloth with a rough surface.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A municipality and community therein, in Hastings County, Ontario, Canada.

Examples

  • He is dressed in an old tweed suit.

  • Tom was dressed in an old tweed suit.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A river in the United Kingdom; a river in the Scottish Borders area which for part of its length forms the border between Scotland and England. It flows into the North Sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed and Tweedmouth, England.

  2. A coarse woolen fabric used for clothing.

More examples

In context

  • MICHAEL NOWAK, alias John Mazurkiewiez, was indicted for stealing, on the 15th of April, 2 1/4 yards of woollen cloth, called tweed, value 12s., and 2 1/4 yards of woollen cloth, called doe-skin, value 17s., […]

  • The Tweed is a salmon river, and the Blessing of the Nets ceremony heralds the start of the fishing season.

  • “Nothing very special, sir. He had a mack or coat over his arm, and a trilby hat. He wore a tweed suit, sir, I think.”

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

He wore a jacket made of blank to keep warm in the cold weather.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

Attested since the 1830s. Probably a shortening or back-formation from Scots tweedling (“a type of twilled cloth”), attested since the 16th century and related to tweedle; the two words are variants of tweeling and tweel, which go back to Middle English twel, twyle (“a type of woven fabric; twill”), whence also English twill. Scottish tradition says it derives directly from tweel when an English merchant misread tweels or tweeled (cloth) in an 1831 letter from a Scottish merchant as Tweed(s) and took it to be a trade-name based on the River Tweed, but the DSL says evidence for this is lacking, and because English merchants must have been familiar with tweel(ed cloth) before the 1830s, it se...