bombasine
(ˈbɒm-, ˈbʌmbəziːn)
Forms: 6 bombasyne, 6–9 -in, 7 bumbazine, 7–9 bombazin, 8 bumbasine, 8–9 bombazeen, 9 bombazine, 7– bombasine.
[a. F. bombasin, ad. late L. bombasinum, var. of bombȳcinum (Isidore) a silk texture, neuter of bombȳcinus silken, f. bombyx, -ȳcem silk-worm, silk. On the later transfer of bombyx, bombax, and its derivatives to ‘tree-silk’ or cotton, bombasin was also applied to cotton fabrics, ‘fustaine ou bombasin, et toute autre chose faicte de coton, xylinum’, R. Estienne Petit Dict.]
† 1. Raw cotton; = bombace 1. Obs.
| 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. i. ii. (Arb.) 69 marg., This Cotton the Spaniardes call Algodon & the Italians Bombasine. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Du Bombasyn, Bombasin, cotton. |
2. A twilled or corded dress-material, composed of silk and worsted; sometimes also of cotton and worsted, or of worsted alone. In black the material is much used in mourning.
| 1572 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) I. 373 One doblat of white bombasyne. 1611 Cotgr., Bombasin, the stuffe Bumbazine; or any kind of stuffe that's made of cotton, or of cotton and linnen. 1660 Act 12 Chas. II, iv. Sched., Boratoes or Bombasines—narrow the single piece not above 15 yards, vjl. 1747 Mrs. Delany Autobiog. (1861) II. 478 Black bombazeen will do very well in a sack. 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Expost. Ode xv. Wks. 1812 II. 248 In Sorrow's dismal crape or bombazeen. 1820 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) II. iv. 83 Crape and bombazin and broad-hemmed frills. 1831 G. Porter Silk Manuf. 299 Bombasin..a twilled manufacture, having its warp of silk, and its shoot of worsted. |
b. attrib. and comb.
| 1666 Pepys Diary (1879) III. 494 Putting on my black stuffe bombazin suit. 1766 Anstey Bath Guide xi. (1804) 94 Who is that bombazine lady so gay, So profuse of her beauties, in sable array? 1819 P.O. Lond. Directory 19 Bombazeen Manufacturers. Ibid. 144 Bombazeen-dressers. |