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cambric

[keym-brik]
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noun
  1. a thin, plain cotton or linen fabric of fine close weave, usually white.
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Origin of cambric

1520–30; earlier cameryk, after Kameryk, Dutch name of Cambrai
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cambric

Historical Examples

  • Each of these fairies was about the height of a cambric needle.

    A Little Book of Profitable Tales

    Eugene Field

  • She has more eyes than ever Argus had, and each one is as sharp as a cambric needle.

    The Midnight Queen

    May Agnes Fleming

  • The cambric pocket-handkerchief was the only one known in the olden times.

    The English Spy

    Bernard Blackmantle

  • Cambric is a heavy, glazed cotton fabric with a smooth finish.

    Textiles

    William H. Dooley

  • The sheets—I've seen the pattern—they are of cambric—spider-web.

    Rene Mauperin

    Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt

British Dictionary definitions for cambric

cambric

noun
  1. a fine white linen or cotton fabric
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Word Origin

C16: from Flemish Kamerijk Cambrai
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cambric

n.

late 14c., from Kamerijk, Flemish form of Cambrai, city in northern France where the cloth was originally made, from Latin Camaracum. The modern form of the English word has elements from both versions of the name.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper