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

Linoleum, a floorcloth, being a composition of cork and linseed oil with chloride of silver.

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin

The rich velvet sofa of early English design was littered with proofs and copies of the Pilgrim, and the stamped velvet was two shades richer in tone than the pale dead-red of the floorcloth.

From Mike Fletcher A Novel by Moore, George (George Augustus)

Her Majesty is no stranger to a vault or firmament, of a sort of floorcloth, with an indistinct pattern distantly resembling eyes, which occasionally obtrudes itself on her repose.

From Reprinted Pieces by Dickens, Charles

It was a neat, dull little house, on the shady side of the way, with new, narrow floorcloth in the passage, and new, narrow stair-carpets up to the first floor. 

From Sketches by Boz, illustrative of everyday life and every-day people by Dickens, Charles

The wind fell at noon on the following day, and the wretched travelers then crept from their icy nests, spread the floorcloth over their heads, and lit their primus.

From The Voyages of Captain Scott : Retold from the Voyage of the Discovery and Scott's Last Expedition by Turley, Charles