Dictionary

muslin en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈmʌz.lɪn/

Etymology

From French mousseline, from Italian mussolina, from Mussolo (“Mosul”), that is Mosul in northern Iraq (compare 1875 Knight, Edward H., Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, V2 p1502: "Muslins are so called from Moussol in India."). Doublet of mousseline.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:textile, uncountable, usually) Any of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.
   • It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar. 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:
   • […] my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should. 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 11, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
   • A bleached or unbleached thin white cotton cloth, unprinted and undyed. [Nineteen varieties are thereafter listed.] 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, volume 2, page 1502:
2. (US, uncountable, usually) Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.
   • Other very different styles of fabric are now indifferently called muslins, and the term is used differently on the respective sides of the Atlantic. 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, volume 2, pages 1502–1503:
3. (uncountable, usually) Any of a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.
4. (US, uncountable, usually) Woven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
5. (countable, usually) A mock-up of a garment pattern made of inexpensive fabric for the purpose of optimizing its fit on the wearer, before the garment is produced in more expensive fabric.
   • Fitting this pattern is tricky, so we recommend you make a muslin first.
6. (uncountable, usually) Any of several different moths, especially the muslin moth, Diaphora mendica.
7. (uncountable, usually) Woman as sex object; prostitute, as in a bit of muslin.
   • "That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm—who was she?” asked the fascinating student. 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

muslin-kale · buke muslin · muslinoma · butter muslin · butter-muslin · muslinlike · bit of muslin · paper muslin · muslined · book muslin

Translations (38)

pl muślin (thin cotton cloth) · ja メリンス (thin cotton cloth) · fi lakanakangas (thin fabric used for bedlinen) · ja 唐縮緬 (thin cotton cloth) · fi hukkasiilikäs (moth) · fi sovitusmalli (dressmaker's pattern) · eo muslino (thin cotton cloth) · bg хасе (thin fabric used for bedlinen) · fi musliini (thin cotton cloth) · es muselina (thin cotton cloth) · cs mušelín (thin cotton cloth) · ro muselină (thin cotton cloth) · fr mousseline (thin cotton cloth) · de Musselin (thin cotton cloth) · ota دلبند (thin cotton cloth) · tl muselina (thin cotton cloth) · hi मलमल (thin cotton cloth) · bg муселин (thin cotton cloth) · it mussola (thin cotton cloth) · arz شاش (thin cotton cloth) · ar مَوْصِلِيّ (thin cotton cloth) · nb musselin (thin cotton cloth) · sh muslin (thin cotton cloth) · pt musselina (thin cotton cloth) · el μουσελίνα (thin cotton cloth) · ar مَوْصِلِيّ (thin fabric used for bedlinen) · ja 毛斯綸 (thin cotton cloth) · ar مَوْصِلِيّ (dressmaker's pattern) · ja モスリン (thin cotton cloth) · nrf mousselinne (thin cotton cloth) · ro muselin (thin cotton cloth) · nl mousseline (thin cotton cloth) · ru мусли́н (thin cotton cloth) · ga muislín (thin cotton cloth) · sh муслин (thin cotton cloth) · ro muslin (thin cotton cloth) · ka ნანსუკი (thin cotton cloth) · ja モス (thin cotton cloth)