floorcloth

American  

[flawr-klawth, -kloth, flohr-] / ˈflɔrˌklɔθ, -ˌklɒθ, ˈfloʊr- /

noun

PLURAL

floorcloths

1. a cloth for washing or wiping floors.

2. a piece of cloth or the like, as crash, drugget, or linoleum, used with or without a carpet for covering a floor.

3. ground cloth.

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Etymology

Origin of floorcloth

First recorded in 1740–50; floor + cloth

Example Sentences

Search online for “floorcloth” and you’ll find directions for making one yourself, or you can order one from artists who have revived the craft of making floorcoverings from canvas or other materials and paint.

From Washington Post

Kamptulicon, kamp-tū′li-kon, n. a ground cork and caoutchouc floorcloth.

From Project Gutenberg

All the time I was a partner in that floorcloth factory, I never interfered in the conduct of it, beyond signing my name occasionally—which was all they allowed me to do—and they took the earliest opportunity of buying me out.

From Project Gutenberg

FLOORCLOTH, a rough flannel cloth used for domestic cleaning; also a generic term applied to a variety of materials used in place of carpets for covering floors, and known by such trade names as kamptulicon, oil-cloth, linoleum, corticine, cork-carpet, &c.

From Project Gutenberg

I looked at the bristly-headed physician, who handed me a sheet of note paper with a big capital B, two long blurs, a rough blotch, a few spidery ink splays, and an ugly MD at the end of a few inky hooks-and-eyes, which I received in return for the twenty-one shillings I left upon the table; and then muttering the one word “diet,” I stood in the hall upon a horrible stony-looking piece of floorcloth that quite struck cold up my legs.

From Project Gutenberg