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Brussels lace   /brˈəsəlz leɪs/   Listen
noun
Lace  n.  
1.
That which binds or holds, especially by being interwoven; a string, cord, or band, usually one passing through eyelet or other holes, and used in drawing and holding together parts of a garment, of a shoe, of a machine belt, etc. "His hat hung at his back down by a lace." "For striving more, the more in laces strong Himself he tied."
2.
A snare or gin, especially one made of interwoven cords; a net. (Obs.) "Vulcanus had caught thee (Venus) in his lace."
3.
A fabric of fine threads of linen, silk, cotton, etc., often ornamented with figures; a delicate tissue of thread, much worn as an ornament of dress. "Our English dames are much given to the wearing of costly laces."
4.
Spirits added to coffee or some other beverage. (Old Slang)
Alençon lace, a kind of point lace, entirely of needlework, first made at Alençon in France, in the 17th century. It is very durable and of great beauty and cost.
Bone lace, Brussels lace, etc. See under Bone, Brussels, etc.
Gold lace, or Silver lace, lace having warp threads of silk, or silk and cotton, and a weft of silk threads covered with gold (or silver), or with gilt.
Lace leather, thin, oil-tanned leather suitable for cutting into lacings for machine belts.
Lace lizard (Zool.), a large, aquatic, Australian lizard (Hydrosaurus giganteus), allied to the monitors.
Lace paper, paper with an openwork design in imitation of lace.
Lace piece (Shipbuilding), the main piece of timber which supports the beak or head projecting beyond the stem of a ship.
Lace pillow, and Pillow lace. See under Pillow.



proper noun
Brussels  n.  (Geography) The capital city of Belgium. Population (2000) = 949,070 (metro). It has given its name to a kind of carpet, a kind of lace, etc.
Brussels carpet, a kind of carpet made of worsted yarn fixed in a foundation web of strong linen thread. The worsted, which alone shows on the upper surface in drawn up in loops to form the pattern.
Brussels ground, a name given to the handmade ground of real Brussels lace. It is very costly because of the extreme fineness of the threads.
Brussels lace, an expensive kind of lace of several varieties, originally made in Brussels; as, Brussels point, Brussels ground, Brussels wire ground.
Brussels net, an imitation of Brussels ground, made by machinery.
Brussels point. See Point lace.
Brussels sprouts (Bot.), a plant of the Cabbage family, which produces, in the axils of the upright stem, numerous small green heads, or "sprouts," each a cabbage in miniature, of one or two inches in diameter; the thousand-headed cabbage.
Brussels wire ground, a ground for lace, made of silk, with meshes partly straight and partly arched.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Brussels lace" Quotes from Famous Books



... differently. But what about the box of Flor Fantomas I'm taking for the Major, and the bottle of whisky with which the skipper has entrusted me for the purpose of propitiating his projected father-in-law, to say nothing of the piece of Brussels lace which Binnie says is for his aunt. Their combined weight will just about earn me a lifer. I can see me wiring the War Office for an extension of leave on urgent business grounds—nature of business, to enable applicant to complete ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, January 21st, 1920 • Various

... actually buried in woollen fabric. The upper classes, however, preferred to bury in linen, and to pay the fine of 5L. When Mistress Oldfield, the famous actress, was interred in 1730, her body was arrayed "in a very fine Brussels lace headdress, a holland shift with a tucker and double ruffles of the same lace, and a ...
— Books and Bookmen • Andrew Lang

... evening I drove to the Palace. My dress was my currant-colored or grosseille velvet with a wreath of white Arum lilies woven into a kind of turban, with green leave and bouquet to match, on the bertha of Brussels lace. I was received by a servant, who escorted me through a long narrow corridor the length of Winthrop Place and consigned me to another who escorted me in his turn, through another wider corridor to the foot of a flight of stairs which ...
— Letters from England 1846-1849 • Elizabeth Davis Bancroft (Mrs. George Bancroft)

... woollen! 'twould a saint provoke (Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke); No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs, and ...
— English Villages • P. H. Ditchfield

... frock, on promenade days in the Palace Gardens, when other people's children are wearing silk. And plain as my own dress may be, I must and will have the best material that is made. When the wife of the military commandant (a woman sprung from the people) goes out in an Indian shawl with Brussels lace in her bonnet, am I to meet her and return her bow, in a camelot cloak and a beaver hat? No! When I lose my self-respect let me lose my life too. My husband may sink as low as he pleases. I always have stood above him, ...
— Jezebel • Wilkie Collins

... material is usually of comparative small amount. A pound's worth of iron makes six hundred pounds' worth of penknives; and cotton, which in the state of gingham may be bought at 3d. per yard, is sold for the same weight as gold in threads for Brussels lace. ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 457 - Volume 18, New Series, October 2, 1852 • Various

... carriage horses with silver, no one will dream of interfering with you; any more than of preventing courtesans and other fine ladies from befouling their nether limbs by sweeping the dusty road with flounces of Brussels lace; or of preventing members of the Cobden Club from gorging themselves annually, at a cost of five guineas per paunch, in honour of the prince of practical economists. But property, which, however great the good it is capable of doing, you are ...
— Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense Metaphysics - With Some of Their Applications • William Thomas Thornton



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