crinoline

[krin-l-in]

noun

a petticoat of haircloth or other stiff material, worn under a full skirt to keep it belled out.

a stiff, coarse cotton material for interlining.

a hoop skirt.

a reinforcement of iron straps for holding together brickwork, as of a furnace or chimney.

Origin of crinoline

1820–30; < French < Italian crinolino, equivalent to crino horse-hair (≪ Latin crīnis hair) + lino flax < Latin līnum; cf. linen

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for crinoline

Historical Examples of crinoline

An awkward predicament is as unfamiliar to me as a crinoline; I have never been in one.
The Idler Magazine, Volume III, April 1893
Various
A woman is ashamed to be without a crinoline or a bustle when all the rest wear them.
Folkways
William Graham Sumner
But Maryanne wore her hoops as a duchess wears her crinoline.
The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson
Anthony Trollope
Nor he you in an ordinary silk gown, puffed out with crinoline.
The Bertrams
Anthony Trollope
I saw them to-day, without any crinoline, pulling the garden-roller.
The Book of Snobs
William Makepeace Thackeray

British Dictionary definitions for crinoline

crinoline

noun

a stiff fabric, originally of horsehair and linen used in lining garments

a petticoat stiffened with this, worn to distend skirts, esp in the mid-19th century

a framework of steel hoops worn for the same purpose

Word Origin for crinoline

C19: from French, from Italian crinolino, from crino horsehair, from Latin crīnis hair + lino flax, from Latin līnum

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 crinoline

1830, from French crinoline "hair cloth" (19c.), from Italian crinolino, from crino "horsehair" (from Latin crinis "hair") + lino "flax, thread," from Latin linum (see linen). So called from the warp and woof fibers of the original mixture.