Definitions

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

  • noun A worsted fabric with a distinct diagonal rib.
  • noun A strong twisted or braided cord sometimes used in making whiplashes.
  • noun Catgut.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A weave showing a corded effect or pattern running lengthwise of the fabric.
  • noun A strong twisted hempen cord, so called because lashes or snappers of whips are made from it.
  • noun A cord or string of catgut.
  • noun A seaweed, Chorda filum, having a very long, slender, whip-like frond. See Chorda, 2.

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

  • noun A kind of hard-twisted or braided cord, sometimes used for making whiplashes.

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

  • noun A hard, twisted cord used for making whiplashes.
  • noun A type of catgut.
  • noun A strong worsted fabric, with a diagonal rib.

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

  • noun closely twisted hard cord used for the lashes of whips
  • noun a strong worsted or cotton fabric with a diagonal rib

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It is no wonder that Ritson, in the historical essay prefixed to his collection of _Scottish Songs_, should speak of some of these ballads with a zest as if he would have sacrificed half his library to untie the said "whipcord" packet.

    Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance Thomas Frognall Dibdin 1811

  • He wore blue jerseys, and blue shirts which her mother called Aertex, and tweed ties and whipcord trousers.

    William Trevor | An Idyll in Winter 2011

  • The Enforcement detective had no Psy abilities, and unlike the butcher sitting across from her, his body was whipcord lean.

    Archive 2009-11-01 Nalini Singh 2009

  • The Enforcement detective had no Psy abilities, and unlike the butcher sitting across from her, his body was whipcord lean.

    Excerpt - Bonds of Justice Nalini Singh 2009

  • The wealthy financier was well known in upper crust social circles, and generally thought something of a fop, but his steely gaze and his whipcord muscles flexing like steel bands beneath the dark fabric of his suit would brook no delay.

    Free Excerpt 4/5: Book of Secrets by Chris Roberson 2009

  • The lash, however, was curled upon itself and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord.

    Sole Music 2010

  • His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, sinewy neck.

    Sole Music 2010

  • The sight of the safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to finally dispel any doubts which may have remained.

    Sole Music 2010

  • (Somehow one always watches that tiny head, and its yoke of yellow around the neck, all lifted marginally above the water's surface, and miss the whipcord of black-banded green that lashes behind.)

    Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk 2010

  • People keep telling me I'm a large, hairy, bearlike person, but deep inside I'm whipcord-thin Eurotrash in a pastel linen jacket and designer shades.

    The Green Leopard and Other Plagues Walter Jon Williams 2010

Comments

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  • "He wore a canvas jacket, whipcord breeches, and a bowler hat."

    The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, p 75 of the New York Review of Books hardcover

    July 17, 2013