Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A coarse, brightly printed cloth.
- n. Chiefly British A plain white cotton cloth, heavier than muslin.
- n. An animal, such as a cat, having a coat that is mottled in tones of white with red and black.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Properly, any white cotton cloth: as, unbleached calico, shirting-calico, etc. Calico was first manufactured in India, whence it was introduced into Europe.
- n. In the United States, printed cotton cloth of a coarser quality than muslin.
- Made of calico: as, a calico gown.
- Resembling printed cotton or calico; spotted; piebald: as, a calico horse.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a pattern of red and contrasting areas, resembling the color of calico cloth.
- n. A kind of rough cloth, often printed with a bright pattern.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. engraving Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use
- n. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern.
- adj. Colloq. U. S. Made of, or having the appearance of, calico; -- often applied to an animal, as a horse or cat, on whose body are large patches of a color strikingly different from its main color.
WordNet 3.0
- n. coarse cloth with a bright print
- adj. made of calico or resembling calico in being patterned
- adj. having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly
Etymologies
- From Calicut, in India, from where the cloth was originally exported, from Malayalam കോഴിക്കോട് ("Kozhikode"), from koyil ("palace") + kota ("fort"), “fortified palace”, with ‘y’ replaced by interchangeable ‘zh’. (Wiktionary)
- After Calicut . (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“To the lady asking about leggings, I wear leggings under all my dresses; long and warm for winter, and 'Petti Pants' (like wide bermuda shorts but in calico with an elastic waist) for summer. over these a slip (or petiblouse if wearing a skirt) and I'm set for the day.”
“And in the meantime, our calico is still sitting on her shelf, waiting for a paycheck.”
“In America, it is sometimes called the calico cat.”
“But there I find two figures in calico wrappers, with bare red arms akimbo, a basket of wet clothes in front of each, and only one empty clothes-line between them.”
“She robbed the windows of their lawn and muslin curtains, replacing them with gaudy calico from the trade-store, and made herself several gowns.”
“Most of the latter were encased in calico bags, which could be hung in the shade, secure from either ants or flies, the remainder, packed in tins, being stowed away easily in the corner of one of the tents.”
“Some were dressed in calico suits, trimmed with little ruffles – ruffles round the bottom of the pants, ruffles down the front and round the tails of the coats; and on both sides of the button-holes of their vests were rows of small ruffles.”
“I've always thought the multi-colored kitties like that one are called calico or sometimes, like when they have more white on them like your pretty, namesless kitty of the day, called tortiseshell.”
Cat Visit to Victoria RSPCA: New friends and plots of global domination
“The calico is the smallest and in many ways the stupidest.”
“I do know the calico is a female, since genetics dictate.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘calico’.
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Sue's favorite words
panache, flair, pantaloons, periwinkle, pumpernickel, persnickety, cachet, coquette, élan, iris, ambrosia, keen and 99 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
czardas, cytometer, cytology, cytheromania, cystoscope, cystolith, cyrenaic, cypseline, cyprinoid, cyphonism, cynophobia, cytogenesis and 1298 more...
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Colors/Patterns/Prints/Textures
fritillary, chartreuse, tortoise-shell, brindle, burnt orange, cerulean, amaranth, sandy, amber, mold, fungus, kiwi and 65 more...
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Anything to do with cats
if you're a cat freak like i am - then this is the list for you
fur ball, i laughed, i cried, it was better tha..., T.S. Eliot, Memory, Andrew Lloyd Webber, feline, mew, Persian, purr, can opener and 19 more...
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Whence
Definitions with a whence in them.
girasol, spider, Good King Whenceslas, Æ, whence, narwhal, lithophyse, henbane, gamboge, cirripedia, thermifugine, zietrisikite and 42 more...
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Tip-Top Toponymic
Place names that have entered general speech. Toponyms that interest me in other ways are on Place Names Of Distinction
hamburger, wiener, finlandisation, vernissage, hackney, venetians, bohemian, anti-macassar, berliner, cravat, calico, serendipity and 113 more...
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thing
apron, lard, clove, camphor, alfalfa, amber, caraway, juniper, kohl, lute, shale, glyph and 142 more...
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alopecia
i suppose, all of the words & phrases yoni wolf uses in alopecia, that i love.
ladies man, landmine, cavalier, consumer grade video, single's bingo, all-time gringo, calculated birth, manila envelope, mortaring, houdini, punchline, circus mirrors and 160 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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tree's Words
aphasia, anhedonia, promontory, misandry, amanuensis, asymptote, penultimate, muslin, tundra, calico, kinaesthesia, rutabaga and 209 more...
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billfence's Words
quotidian, flux, sawbuck, horsefeathers, chalcedony, harp, no, fox, tennis, badminton, flue, charm and 186 more...
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Chainlink's Words
hat, opalescent, opal, emerald, sapphire, scythe, carnival, calliope, brilliant, awesome, feather, fantastic and 268 more...
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nighthawks at the diner
being words from Tom Waits songs.
vinyl, cigarette, rhinestone, naugahyde, margarine, vermouth, gin, platinum, wurlitzer, menthol, oldsmobile, asphalt and 90 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (C)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
cacophony, cad, cajole, calamity, camomile, camphor, candlemas, candy apple, canopy, canticle, caparison, caravan and 304 more...
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heart of darkness
yawl, sea-reach, offing, barge, sprit, estuary, yarn, aft, mizzenmast, placid, gauzy, diaphanous and 141 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for calico.
knitandpurl "Now that Albertine no longer appeared to be angry with me, the possession of her no longer seemed to me a treasure in exchange for which one is prepared to sacrifice every other. For perhaps one would have done so only to rid oneself of a grief, an anxiety, which are now appeased. One has succeeded in jumping through the calico hoop through which one thought for a moment that one would never be able to pass."
-- The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 556 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 10, 2010
treeseed The Duel
(The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat
by Eugene Field
The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
(I wasn't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)
The gingham dog went " Bow-wow-wow!"
And the calico cat replied "Me-ow!"
The air was littered,an hour or so,
With bits of gingham and calico,
While the old Dutch clock in the chimney place
Up with it hands before its face,
For it always dreaded a family row!
(Now mind: I'm only telling you
What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)
The Chinese plate looked very blue,
And wailed,"Oh dear! What shall we do!"
But the gingham dog and the calico cat
Wallowed this way and tumbled that,
Employing every tooth and claw
In the awfullest way you ever saw-
And oh! how the gingham and calico flew!
(Don't fancy I exaggerate!
I got my news from the Chinese plate!)
Next morning where the two had sat
They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole the pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!
Now what do you really think of that!
(The old Dutch clock, it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)
Jan 24, 2008