batiste
(bəˈtiːst)
Also 7 baptist.
[a. F. batiste = Baptiste, according to Littré and Scheler from the alleged original maker, Baptiste of Cambray; according to others, from its use in wiping the heads of children after baptism.]
The French word for cambric; applied, in commerce, to a fine light fabric of the same texture, but differently finished, and made of cotton as well as of linen. Often attrib.
| 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 155 A sort of a Gown made of their Baptist Cloth very fine. 1863 B. Taylor H. Thurston xviii. 240 Wiped her eyes with a very small batiste handkerchief. 1880 M. E. Braddon Asph. I. vi. 188 A graceful, gracious figure in a pale yellow batiste gown. |