English

A 1793 portrait by Angelica Kauffmann of Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough wearing a muslin dress

Noun

muslin ‎(plural muslins)

1. (textile) Any of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.
   • 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, Vol.2 p.1502:

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

   • 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., OCLC 580270828:

     It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.

2. (US) Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.
   • 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, Vol.2 pp.1502−3:

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

3. A term used for a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.
4. (US) Woven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
5. A dressmaker's pattern made from inexpensive cloth for fitting.

Derived terms

• butter muslin

Translations

References

• http://www.fabrics-manufacturers.com/muslin.html