Definitions

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

  • noun A yarn-dyed cotton or cotton blend fabric usually woven in checks, plaids, or stripes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cotton fabric woven of plain dyed yarns, in a single color or different colors, or of dyed and white yarns, combined in grays or other mixtures, checks, plaids, or stripes.
  • Made or consisting of gingham.

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

  • noun A kind of cotton or linen cloth, usually in stripes or checks, the yarn of which is dyed before it is woven; -- distinguished from printed cotton or prints.

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

  • noun A cotton fabric made from dyed and white yarn woven in checks

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

  • noun a clothing fabric in a plaid weave

Etymologies

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

[Dutch ginggang, from Malay genggang, ginggang, apart, separated by a space, striped (as in kain genggang, striped cloth, gingham).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Malay genggang.

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Examples

  • I was so moved by his images on the wall: black women in gingham dresses with mile-wide smiles as they held up their voter registration cards; Martin Luther King's widow Coretta Scott King at the funeral of the civil rights leader; images of Negro League players; striking sanitation workers with their "I Am a Man" signs from just weeks before King's assassination.

    Nancy Snow: Whither Ernest Withers? Nancy Snow 2010

  • I expressed concern about finishing high school at an institution paved in gingham, a place that didn’t involve gum under the desks or drug paraphernalia in the halls.

    Excerpt: I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley 2008

  • I know that their peace is only partial, but there is peace, often hours and days of peace. quiet clean girls in gingham dresses ..., from Love is a Dog from Hell

    Literature 2006

  • I know that their peace is only partial, but there is peace, often hours and days of peace. quiet clean girls in gingham dresses ..., from Love is a Dog from Hell

    Dirty Old Men at the Bar 2006

  • I know that their peace is only partial, but there is peace, often hours and days of peace. quiet clean girls in gingham dresses ..., from Love is a Dog from Hell

    unbillable hours: 2006

  • Disguise your vacuum cleaner as a giant rat in gingham

    Boing Boing: January 23, 2005 - January 29, 2005 Archives 2005

  • The gloves and slippers were quite dirty, and the barège was old and darned; but the general effect was so very gorgeous, that the children, who were dressed for play, in gingham frocks and white aprons, were quite dazzled at the appearance of their guest.

    What Katy Did: A Story 1887

  • But the "Yankees" do make all their umbrella gingham, which is very nice.

    Illustrated Science for Boys and Girls Anonymous

  • Grandmother wear these here gingham cloth call gingham twill.

    Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves South Carolina Narratives, Part 4 Work Projects Administration

  • Kurt Wilberding for the Wall Street Journal The luxury collection's layered-looks interpreted vernacular American styles and materials, such as gingham, espadrilles, aprons and plaid.

    Marc Jacobs Spring 2009 2008

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