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  1. homespun love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Spun or woven in the home: homespun linen.
  2. adj. Made of a homespun fabric: a homespun tablecloth.
  3. adj. Simple and homely; unpretentious: "Most small towns would have gladly forfeited some of their homespun values if it meant luring a firm there” ( William Mueller).
  4. n. A plain, coarse, usually woolen cloth made of homespun yarn.
  5. n. A similar sturdy fabric made on a power loom.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Spun or wrought at home; of domestic manufacture.
  2. Hence Of domestic origin; plain; familiar; commonplace.
  3. n. Cloth made at home; home-made clothing.
  4. n. A coarse and loosely woven woolen material, made in imitation of actual home-made cloth.
  5. n. A coarse, unpolished, or rustic person.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. of yarn Spun in the home.
  2. adj. of fabric Woven in the home.
  3. adj. of clothing, etc. Made from homespun fabric.
  4. adj. by extension Plain and homely; unsophisticated and unpretentious.
  5. n. Fabric made from homespun yarn.
  6. n. obsolete An unpolished, rustic person.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Spun or wrought at home; of domestic manufacture; coarse; plain.
  2. adj. Plain in manner or style; not elegant; rude; coarse.
  3. n. Cloth made at home.
  4. n. obsolete An unpolished, rustic person.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. of textiles; having a rough surface
  2. n. a rough loosely woven fabric originally made with yarn that was spun at home
  3. adj. characteristic of country life
  4. adj. made of cloth spun or woven in the home

Examples

  • “Frenchman who was brought into Penobscot, dressed in homespun, and sent to meeting.”

    CHAPTER XVIII

  • “In support of the nonimportation movements of 1765 and 1769, the Daughters of Liberty used their traditional skills to weave yarn and wool into homemade cloth they called homespun, which made America less dependent on British textiles.”

    History of American Women

  • “At her feet, knelt a boy dressed in homespun cotton fringed with red indígena motifs.”

    Walking the walk, talking the talk - Fiesta de Guadalupe in Puerto Vallarta

  • “Some time about the year 1827, two sturdy lads, tall and well proportioned but clad in homespun and barefooted, came to "Dryden Corners" from the South Hill neighborhood, driving an ox team and bringing to market a wagon load of pine shingles which they had shaved by hand.”

    Living in Dryden: The McGraws of Irish Settlement

  • “Being a bit of a Gordon Sinclair addict myself -- you know, when I did Front Page Challenge recently Mr. Sinclair was so nice to me he didn't even ask me what my salary was -- I believe in homespun philosophy.”

    Bermuda Calling

  • “However, I must not indulge in homespun wisdom here before so distinguished an assembly, especially as I am to be followed by a representative of science.”

    Knut Hamsun - Banquet Speech

  • “[Page 146] not take his view of it, and we think it hypocrisy objecting to a fallen woman in homespun on the stage, when a fallen woman in satin has been the theme of such a great number of plays that have been passed. ”

    Our Irish Theatre: A Chapter of Autobiography

  • “When, contrary to the old-established custom of the demagogue, the little politician in homespun had confided to the men in front of him what he thought of them, he told them that the Woman's Movement which they held themselves so clever for ridiculing, was in much the same position to-day as the Extension of Suffrage for men was in '67.”

    The Convert

  • “I told the girls about it, and when they got home they were a beautiful blue all about their necks, and they hardly allowed the word homespun ever to be uttered to them until we really had to make it at home and wear it.”

    A southern woman's war time reminiscences,

  • “He contemned all the elegancies of diction, using only plain homespun English, aiming at direct and compact statement in the fewest words, and those sometimes chosen with more respect to convenience than precision.”

    Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln

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synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. coarse
  1. plain
  1. rude
  1. homemade
  1. course
  1. homely
  1. artless

equivalents (4)

Other words for ‘homespun’

  1. unsmooth
  1. rough
  1. rural
  1. homemade

same context (18)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. woolen
  2. ill-fitting
  3. rumple
  1. sleeveless
  2. calico
  3. plaid
  1. maroon
  2. quilted
  3. linsey-woolsey
  1. drab
  2. dark-blue
  3. unbleached
  1. alpaca
  2. navy-blue
  3. well-cut
  1. gauzy
  2. silken
  3. blood-soaked

reverse dictionary (13)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. russet
  2. homespun
  1. raploch
  2. cornpone
  1. will rogers
  2. william penn adair rogers
  1. khaddar
  2. Rogers
  1. khadi
  2. butternut
  1. heading
  2. kersey
  1. woolen

tags (1)

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  1. fabric

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  • bilby "This, then, was my bedroom and workroom. There were five beds in it, each with its own shapeless mattress made of coarse homespun and filled with corn shucks. The shucks were astonishingly noisy and the homespun was very hard on the skin, especially sunburnt skin, but the mattresses were always beautifully cool."
    - 'The Madwoman's Underclothes', Germaine Greer. Mar 26, 2008

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‘homespun’ has been looked up 1808 times, loved by 3 people, added to 18 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 15.