calico
Americannoun
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a plain-woven cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern, usually on one side.
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British. plain white cotton cloth.
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an animal having a spotted or particolored coat.
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Obsolete. a figured cotton cloth from India.
adjective
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made of calico.
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resembling printed calico; spotted or mottled.
noun
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a white or unbleached cotton fabric with no printed design
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a coarse printed cotton fabric
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(modifier) made of calico
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of calico
1495–1505; short for Calico cloth, variant of Calicut cloth, named after city in India which originally exported it
Explanation
You can call anything with bright colors and patches calico like your cute calico cat or your colorful calico quilt. There are many fabrics in the world, including silk, cashmere, and denim. Another is calico, which is made from cotton fibers and is printed, meaning it has designs or pictures on it. A calico dress may be printed with purple flowers or have another wild design. Because calico is brightly colored, this word also describes just about anything decorated brightly. As an adjective, calico means something close to motley or multi-colored. A calico design is varied and anything but boring.
Vocabulary lists containing calico
Chains
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The Cay
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Lizards, skinks and dragons were secured in calico bags. These bags were concealed in bags of popcorn, biscuit tins and a women's handbag and placed inside cardboard boxes," the statement said.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
One contributor wrote: "We are siblings in the first and third grades of elementary school. We donated with our pocket money. Use it for research on calico cats."
From BBC ● May 15, 2025
At the time of this story's publication, both are still at the shelter waiting to be adopted . . . although the calico is currently advertised as bonded with a different gray tabby.
From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2024
Scanning a database of 188 cat genomes, Barsh’s team found every single orange, calico, and tortoiseshell cat had the exact same mutation.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 27, 2024
He didn’t need it anymore, for Mama had made him a new suit of clothes—a calico shirt, skin leggings, a set of blue broadcloth britches trimmed with red wool.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
The Hansons' cat is specifically a torn, and cat lovers soon pointed out that all calicoes are female.
From Time Magazine Archive
By the Victorian era, odd batches of brocade, chintzes and calicoes were patched into crazy quilts, more a tour de force in stitchery than in pattern.
From Time Magazine Archive
If she had been home, she might have spent the dark afternoons spinning or sewing, but the mistress bought her woolens and calicoes at the village stores.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
The returns that are injurious to our manufactures, or growth of our own country, are printed calicoes, chintz, wrought silks, stuffs, of herbs and barks, block-tin, sugar, cotton, arrack, copper, and indigo.
From A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before by Defoe, Daniel
Another visitor at Montpellier had been greatly surprised to see the women, neatly dressed in bright calicoes, going to church; and when a shower came, to see the dozen umbrellas that were raised.
From Dorothy Payne, Quakeress A Side-Light upon the Career of 'Dolly' Madison by Barnard, Ella Kent
Arhgap36’s inactivation pattern in calicos and tortoiseshells is typical of a gene on the X chromosome, Brown says, but it’s unusual that a deletion mutation would make a gene more active, not less.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 27, 2024
Scientists curious about those sex differences—or perhaps just cat lovers—have spent more than 60 years unsuccessfully seeking the gene that causes orange fur and the striking patchwork of colors in calicos and tortoiseshells.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 27, 2024
The prints are Laura Ashley-esque micro-florals, calicos and gingham, the necklines are high, sometimes there is a bib or apron, there is usually at least one ruffle.
From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2018
Rainbow and cc have different coloring, for example, since the coats of calicos are determined partly by genes and partly by random molecular changes during development.
From Time Magazine Archive
Miss Preston surges to her feet, a mountain of calicos and lace.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
