dowlas

American  

[dou-luhs] / ˈdaʊ ləs /

noun

1. a coarse linen or cotton cloth.

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Etymology

Origin of dowlas

1485–95; after Daoulas in Brittany; replacing late Middle English douglas, popular substitution for dowlas

Example Sentences

The linen tablecloth was either of holland, huckaback, dowlas, osnaburg, or lockram—all heavy and comparatively coarse materials—or of fine damask, just as to-day; some of the handsome board-cloths were even trimmed with lace.

From Home Life in Colonial Days by Earle, Alice Morse

You can swear that you did n't know her to be of finer weave than dowlas.

From To Have and to Hold by Johnston, Mary

Fame may be all very well in its way, but it butters no parsnips; and, if I am to be famous, I would much rather case my renown in fine linen than in filthy dowlas.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 373, November 1846 by Various

Poorer folk went, like Thynne’s poor countryman, in shirts of “canvas hard and tough,” or of coarse Breton dowlas.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 4 "Coquelin" to "Costume" by Various

Even the coarsest dowlas, or sailcloth, was imported from the Low Countries.

From Men of Invention and Industry by Smiles, Samuel