floss silk
Also flox-, flosh-silk.
[f. floss2, after F. soie floche.]
a. The rough silk broken off in the winding of the cocoons. b. This rough silk carded like cotton or wool and used chiefly in the manufacture of common silk fabrics. c. Untwisted filaments of silk used in embroidery and crewel-work.
| 1759 Pullein in Phil. Trans. LI. 55 It was covered with some floss-silk. 1820 Scott Ivanhoe xiii, The flox-silk with which the billet was surrounded. a 1846 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 II. 53 The truckle bed of Valour and Freedom is not wadded with flosh-silk. 1863 Ouida Held in Bondage (1870) 89 Will you be kind enough to hold this skein of floss silk for me? 1884 J. Payne Tales fr. Arabic I. 17 He found himself upon a couch, stuffed all with floss-silk. |
| attrib. 1847 Alb. Smith Chr. Tadpole v. (1879) 50 A bright blue stock, worked with floss silk sunflowers. |