cuttle
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
to fold (cloth) face to face after finishing.
-
to allow (cloth) to lie without further treatment after fulling, milling, scouring, etc.
noun
-
short for cuttlefish cuttlebone
-
a small cuttlefish, Sepiola atlantica, often found on beaches
Etymology
Origin of cuttle1
before 1000; late Middle English codel, Old English cudele (replaced in the 16th century by cuttlefish and subsequently reshortened)
Origin of cuttle2
First recorded in 1535–45; origin uncertain
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:
He took equal parts of cuttle bone, small white sea-shells, pumice stone, burnt stag's horn, nitre, alum, rock salt, burnt roots of iris, aristolochia, and reeds.
From Old-Time Makers of Medicine The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages by Walsh, James Joseph
The aluminium is carefully cleaned by rubbing with a cuttle bone, or fine sand, and strong warm potash.
From On Laboratory Arts by Threlfall, Richard
The belief in the power of the cuttle to sink a ship and devour her crew is as widely spread over the surface of the globe, as it is ancient in point of time.
From Sea Monsters Unmasked and Sea Fables Explained by Lee, H. W. (Henry William)
About as much as a canary in a cage," she announced, "and we are expected to sing joyously for our cuttle bone and hemp seed.
From The Portal of Dreams by Buck, Charles Neville
These are the cuttle fish, which have now surrendered their Aristotelian name of ‘molluscs’ to that greater group which is seen to include them, together with the shell-fish or ‘ostracoderma’ of Aristotle.
From The Legacy of Greece Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield by Livingstone, R.W.
The doubled piece now passes between a pair of positively driven drawing rollers, and is then "faked," "cuttled," or pleated as indicated.
From The Jute Industry: from Seed to Finished Cloth by Woodhouse, T.
This operation is also known as "cuttling" or "faking."
From The Jute Industry: from Seed to Finished Cloth by Woodhouse, T.
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.
