Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having a triple pile or nap, as a costly kind of velvet (called three-pile); hence, figuratively, having the qualities of three-pile.

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

  • adjective rare Having the quality of three-pile; best; most costly.
  • adjective Fig.: Extravagant; exaggerated; high-flown.
  • adjective obsolete Accustomed to wearing three-pile; hence, of high rank, or wealth.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-piled piece, I warrant thee.

    Act I. Scene II. Measure for Measure 1914

  • Whereto in answer came, three-piled with courtesy, an invitation to Don

    Sir Mortimer Mary Johnston 1903

  • Two low bows, a three-piled, gold-embroidered compliment, a quotation from his

    Audrey Mary Johnston 1903

  • From the other side of Bear Garden, General Loring again sent Stafford forward with a statement, couched in terms of courtesy three-piled and icy.

    The Long Roll Mary Johnston 1903

  • I set you down in my shop at Norwich you might scarce tell fustian from falding, and know little difference between the velvet of Genoa and the three-piled cloth of Bruges.

    The White Company Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • The grave, square-bearded, broadclothed burghers, and their portly dames in velvet and three-piled taffeta, looked down from every post of vantage, while here and there a pretty, timid face peeping out from a Puritan coif made good the old claim, that Taunton excelled in beautiful women as well as in gallant men.

    Micah Clarke His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • Indeed, she never could think of the Browns without talking Johnson; and, as they were seldom absent from her thoughts just then, I heard many a rolling, three-piled sentence.

    Cranford Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1837

  • "In troth, I kenna, my lord," answered Moniplies; "but there is the coffin, as they told me who have seen it: it is made of heben-wood, with silver nails, and lined all through with three-piled damask, might serve a princess to rest in."

    The Fortunes of Nigel Walter Scott 1801

  • She has made my pious father a three-piled cuckold to my knowledge; and now she would be robbing me of my single sheep too.

    The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 07 John Dryden 1665

  • Nor was liberty of conscience infringed by this government, till the civil liberty of the same was lost, as under Herod, Pilate, and Tiberius, a three-piled tyranny.

    The Commonwealth of Oceana James Harrington 1644

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