calico
calico Lexical Profile
calico Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
North American Having a coat or pattern with patches of white, black, and orange or reddish-brown, especially of a domestic cat.
"The shelter just took in a friendly calico kitten that was found wandering near the park."
Made of or resembling printed or plain cotton calico cloth.
"She wore a vintage calico dress with a delicate floral pattern to the summer picnic."
• noun
North American A plain-woven cotton cloth printed with a small, colorful, often floral pattern.
"The quilter sorted through scraps of patterned calico to assemble a traditional patchwork blanket."
North American A domestic cat (Felis catus) whose coat is predominantly white with distinct patches of orange and black; owing to X-chromosome inactivation, such cats are almost exclusively female.
"Our neighbor's calico curled up on the sunny porch railing for an afternoon nap."
British A heavy, plain-woven cotton fabric that is unbleached and often not fully processed, used commonly for making garment toiles and household bags.
"The fashion student stitched a rough prototype out of unbleached calico before cutting into the expensive silk."
Word Nuance & Usage
In American English, 'calico' refers to a brightly printed cotton fabric, whereas in British English it denotes a plain, unbleached white cotton cloth.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the mid-16th century, the word derives from Calicut (modern Kozhikode), a major port city on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India from which the cotton textile was originally exported to Europe.