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grass cloth

or grass·cloth

noun
  1. a fabric made from tough vegetable fibers, used for table linens, wall coverings, etc.
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Origin of grass cloth

First recorded in 1850–55
Also called Canton linen, China grass cloth.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for canton linen

Historical Examples of canton linen

  • It is famous for its breed of pigs, and is noted as a centre for the manufacture of fans and grass-cloth.

    Three Years in Western China

    Alexander Hosie

  • Captain Bennett rose, and drew on a grass-cloth coat that showed his suspenders through.

    Five Hundred Dollars

    Heman White Chaplin

  • Grass-cloth was also sometimes used as a medium of exchange, and prices were quoted in terms of it.

    Japan

    Various

  • The famous Chinese grass-cloth is manufactured by the old method of hand-looms.

  • This he had bound up, whilst swimming, with a strip of his grass-cloth girdle.

British Dictionary definitions for canton linen

grass cloth

noun
  1. a cloth made from plant fibres, such as jute or hemp
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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