parchment

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The skin of a sheep or goat prepared as a material on which to write or paint.
2. n. A written text or drawing on a sheet of this material.
3. n. Paper made in imitation of this material.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The skin of sheep or goats prepared for use as a writing-material and for other purposes. The skins are first soaked in lime to remove the hair, and are then shaved, washed, dried, stretched, and ground or smoothed with fine chalk or lime and pumice-stone. Vellum is a fine parchment made from the skins of calves, kids, and still-born lambs. Other skins prepared in the same way are used for other purposes: as those of the he-goat and wolf for drum-heads, and the skin of the ass for covering battledores. A kind of parchment is made by the Eskimos from the entrails of seals, and is used for bags, blankets, clothing, etc. The skin of the fur-seal is sometimes dressed as parchment and used for making cases for holding valuable papers, etc.
2. n. The cartilaginous sheath or hull of the coffee-bean.
3. n. A document written on parchment.
4. To convert into parchment; parchemin.
5. To cause to become hard, tough, and wrinkled, as the skin in certain diseases.

Wiktionary

1. n. A material, made from the polished skin of a calf, sheep, goat or other animal, used like paper for writing.
2. n. A document made on such material.
3. n. A diploma (traditionally written on parchment).
4. n. Stiff paper imitating that material.
5. n. The creamy to tanned color of parchment

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The skin of a lamb, sheep, goat, young calf, or other animal, prepared for writing on. See vellum.
2. n. The envelope of the coffee grains, inside the pulp.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. skin of a sheep or goat prepared for writing on
2. n. a superior paper resembling sheepskin