CALICO • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Calico

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/kˈæləkˌoʊ/ Listen

noun

Calico n. (pl. calicoes)

Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. (Eng.) "The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company".

Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern. Note: In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.

Calico bass (Zool.), an edible, fresh-water fish (Pomoxys sparaides) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; called also calicoback, grass bass, strawberry bass, barfish, and bitterhead.

Calico printing, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico.

adjective

Calico adj. Made of, or having the appearance of, calico; often applied to an animal, as a horse or cat, on whose body are large patches of a color strikingly different from its main color. (Colloq. U. S.)

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Etymology of 'Calico'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Calico" Quotes from Famous Books

... sun go down on you," he read. "That's the third one of those reminders, Calico," he told the horse. "The wording a little different but the ...

— The Settling of the Sage • Hal G. Evarts

... deckhouse, and afraid to remain alone outside; she compromised matters by sitting down on the deck. Then she placed the small bundle beside her, and hurriedly took the rag-doll from her pocket, into which it was stuffed head down, pulled its calico skirt from over its head, propped it up against the coaming of the door, and told ...

— The Blue Lagoon - A Romance • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... would be about thirteen rupees or twenty-six shillings; in the bush the price is quadrupled. Before leaving us the Abban received at least double the original hire. Besides small presents of cloth, dates, tobacco and rice to his friends, he had six cubits of Sauda Wilayati or English indigo-dyed calico for women's fillets, and two of Sauda Kashshi, a Cutch imitation, a Shukkah or half Tobe for his daughter, and a sheep for himself, together with a large bundle ...

— First footsteps in East Africa • Richard F. Burton

... that they go out in all weathers, invariably walk ten miles a day, and leap five-barred fences on horseback. Yielding to "the inexorable law of a stern necessity," I went to the Rock House, and a very pleasing girl produced a suit of oiled calico. I took off my cloak, bonnet, and dress. "Oh," she said, "you must change everything, it's so very wet." As, to save time, I kept demurring to taking off various articles of apparel, I always received the ...

— The Englishwoman in America • Isabella Lucy Bird

... and pretty when seen close at hand, and from the pattern of the feathers is often called Calico-bird. The Golden Plover is darker and not so conspicuously ...

— Citizen Bird • Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues

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