cashmere
(ˈkæʃmɪə(r), kæʃˈmɪə(r))
Also cashmeer, cachemire, -mere, and with capital initial.
[Cashmere or Kashmīr, name of a kingdom in the Western Himalayas, used attrib.]
a. More fully cashmere shawl: A costly shawl made of fine soft wool obtained from the Cashmere goat and the wild goat of Tibet. b. The material of which cashmere shawls are made. c. Also applied to a woollen fabric made in France and England in imitation of the true cashmere.
| 1822 J. W. Croker Diary 11 Jan., She..and Lady Eliz. were dressed in rich cashmeres..the wide borders of the shawls making the flounce of the gown. 1827 Lytton Pelham (L.) If you can bring me a Cachemire shawl..Perhaps you could get my old friend Madame de ― to choose the Cachemire. a 1845 Hood Desert-Born ii, In yellow folds voluminous she wore her long cachemere. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life i. Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 311 You may as well ask a loom which weaves huckaback, why it does not make cashmere. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 35/1 Kashmir (a substitute for flannel). |