Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sturdy fabric of wool, cotton, or wool and cotton, often with an embossed finish, used especially for upholstery.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fabric of wool, or very often of cotton and wool, similar to tammy, commonly watered, but sometimes plain. It is used for petticoats, bathing-dresses, etc., and the heavier qualities for curtains.

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

  • noun A thick woolen fabric, watered or with embossed figures; -- used in upholstery, for curtains, etc.

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

  • noun A thick woollen fabric, watered or with embossed figures, used in upholstery, for curtains, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a heavy fabric of wool (or wool and cotton) used mostly in upholstery or for curtains

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly from moiré.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare mohair.

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Examples

  • I have ordered them not of chintz, but moreen, which is against your taste, and hardly according to my own; but the latter article proved on enquiry to be far the thriftier as well as the most comfortable; and therefore the best adapted for our purpose.

    New Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle 1893

  • The blaze of light gave such strong relief to his anxious and sullen face, against the hangings of white silk moreen brushed by his black hair, that he might have been compared to an evil genius.

    Domestic Peace 2007

  • The blaze of light gave such strong relief to his anxious and sullen face, against the hangings of white silk moreen brushed by his black hair, that he might have been compared to an evil genius.

    Domestic Peace 2007

  • The logs were chinked with clay, and the one window, though destitute of glass, and ornamented with the inevitable board-shutter, had a green moreen curtain, which kept out the wind and the rain.

    Among the Pines or, South in Secession Time James R. Gilmore

  • The best bed-chamber, with its hangings of crimson moreen, was opened and aired -- a performance which always caused my eight little brothers and sisters to place themselves in convenient positions for being stumbled over, to the great annoyance of industrious damsels, who, armed with broom and duster, endeavored to render their reign as arbitrary as it was short.

    A Grandmother's Recollections Ella Rodman Church

  • The tenacious Hyde constitution, that was a proverb in Greenfield, conquered at last, and Hitty became conscious, to find herself in a chamber whose plastered walls were crumbling away with dampness and festooned with cobwebs, while the uncarpeted floor was checkered with green stains of mildew, and the very old four-post bedstead on which she lay was fringed around the rickety tester with rags of green moreen, mould-rotted.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 22, August, 1859 Various

  • Then, something making her turn her head sharply to the big bed with its red moreen curtains hanging straightly down beside its four carved posts, her eyes met the wide open eyes of the man lying there.

    Mrs. Day's Daughters Mary E. Mann

  • One skirt of silk or moreen, together with a tiny short one of white muslin and a pair of sensible, warm, woolen equestrian tights will make one more comfortable and will allay that immense swelling about the hips which much be-petticoated old ladies have.

    The Woman Beautiful or, The Art of Beauty Culture Helen Follett Stevans

  • The design or marking of moreen is different on every piece.

    Textiles For Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools; Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades

  • = Moire is a waved or watered effect produced upon the surface of various kinds of textile fabrics, especially on grosgrain silk and woolen moreen.

    Textiles For Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools; Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades

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