Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A variety of ornamental marble, the most famous localities of which are in Italy and Spain.
  • noun An inferior material used for curtains, furniture-covering, and the like, made of silk and wool, silk and cotton, or pure wool, but having a more or less silky surface.
  • noun Also written brocatello.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of coarse brocade, or figured fabric, used chiefly for tapestry, linings for carriages, etc.
  • noun A marble, clouded and veined with white, gray, yellow, and red, in which the yellow usually prevails. It is also called Siena marble, from its locality.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A kind of coarse brocade, or figured fabric, used chiefly for tapestry, linings for carriages, etc.
  • noun A kind of marble, clouded and veined with white, grey, red, and especially yellow; Siena marble.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French brocatelle, from Italian brocatello. See brocade.

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Examples

  • She moved along its coast, through bays and around capes, witnessing great spires of agate, beaches of spherical brocatel boulders, and twisting dunes of onyx sand.

    ADRIFT • by Andrew S. Fuller 2009

  • Closer pressed the pallid face against the glass; firmer grew the grasp of the icy fingers on the brocatel; she had no strength to meet him.

    Macaria 1872

  • From what she had heard, she was not prepossessed in the lady's favor; but, curious to know why she was there at this early hour, she hastened the making of her toilet, and went down to the parlor, where Madam Conway sat, coiled in one corner of the sofa, which she had satisfied herself was covered with real brocatel, as were also the chairs within the room.

    Maggie Miller Mary Jane Holmes 1866

  • In color, the morocco-cushioned chairs and sofas matched it well, and from the broad, massive cornice over the windows -- cornice representing writhing serpents in clusters of oak leaves -- folds of golden-flowered brocatel hung stiff and stately to the floor.

    Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice Augusta Jane 1864

  • Closer pressed the pallid face against the glass; firmer grew the grasp of the icy fingers on the brocatel; she had no strength to meet him.

    Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice Augusta Jane 1864

  • In expectation of her return, an entirely new set of furniture had been selected in New York, and arranged some weeks before her arrival -- costly carpets, splendid mirrors, plush and brocatel sofas, rich china, and every luxury which wealth and fastidious taste could supply.

    Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice Augusta Jane 1864

Comments

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  • The walls of the cold palace spell

    The distance the old family fell.

    Their misery's told

    In Gobelins sold

    And hung in their place, brocatel.

    July 1, 2016