herringbone

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A pattern consisting of rows of short, slanted parallel lines with the direction of the slant alternating row by row and used in masonry, parquetry, embroidery, and weaving.
2. n. A twilled fabric woven in this pattern.
3. n. Sports A method of climbing a ski slope with the tips of the skis pointed outward.
4. v. To arrange or decorate with a herringbone pattern.
5. v. To produce a herringbone pattern.
6. v. Sports To ascend a ski slope with the ski tips pointed outward.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The bone of a herring.
2. Resembling the spine of a herring: specifically applied to courses of stone laid at an angle, so that the stones in each course are placed side by side, and obliquely to the right and left in alternate courses. It is a kind of ashler common in late Roman and occurring in the earliest medieval work.
3. A textile stuff made in this way, as chudders.
4. To sew or embroider with the herring-bone stitch.
5. In carpentry, to strengthen (a floor) by herring-bone bridging, that is, with short pieces of studding set diagonally from the lower edge of one beam to near the upper edge of the next.
6. In masonry, to build, as a wall, of stone, tiles, or bricks laid at an angle with the horizon so as to show on the face in a series of diagonals, generally in alternate courses so as to produce a continued zigzag.

Wiktionary

1. n. A bone of a herring
2. n. A zigzag pattern, especially made by bricks, on a cloth, or by stitches in sewing
3. n. skiing A method of climbing a hill by pointing the skis outward in a V-shape to keep from sliding backwards.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Pertaining to, or like, the spine of a herring; especially, characterized by an arrangement of work in rows of parallel lines, which in the alternate rows slope in different directions.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a pattern of columns of short parallel lines with all the lines in one column sloping one way and lines in adjacent columns sloping the other way; it is used in weaving, masonry, parquetry, embroidery
2. n. a twilled fabric with a herringbone pattern