kersey

American  

[kur-zee] / ˈkɜr zi /

noun

kerseys plural

1. a heavy overcoating of wool or wool and cotton, similar to beaver and melton.

2. a coarse twilled woolen cloth with a cotton warp, used especially for work clothes.

3. a garment made of kersey.

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kersey British  

/ ˈkɜːzɪ /

noun

1. a smooth woollen cloth used for overcoats, etc

2. a twilled woollen cloth with a cotton warp

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• kerseys
  plural

Etymology

Origin of kersey

1400–50; late Middle English; perhaps after Kersey, in Suffolk, England

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

kersey kerseys

We packed big tents on company streets around a chuck wagon where a massive man in comically wide blue kersey trousers served up cold cuts and shoofly pie.

From Salon ● May 28, 2017

While I looked them over, Sander rummaged through an ironbound chest and tossed me a short kersey tunic and a pair of plain breeches.

From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood

And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou’rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet.

From Measure for Measure The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] by Glover, John, librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge

Rudge-wash, ruj′-wash, n. kersey cloth made of fleece wool as it comes from the sheep's back.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

While she was talking her husband had taken down the kersey, and opened it out upon the counter.

From The King's Daughters by Holt, Emily Sarah

Walk this way for kerseys, sayes, and perpetuanoes!

From Heralds of Empire Being the Story of One Ramsay Stanhope, Lieutenant to Pierre Radisson in the Northern Fur Trade by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)

He computes, besides, that about one hundred thousand pounds a year had been lost by kerseys; not to mention other articles.

From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by Hume, David

As for his own remuneration, the new viceroy, as he could expect nothing from the Queen, would be content with permission to export six thousand kerseys and clothes, free of duty.

From The Land-War In Ireland (1870) A History For The Times by Godkin, James

They could have a "sute" of "dublett and hose of leather lyned with oyled-skin-leather," fastened with hooks and eyes instead of buttons; or one of "hampshire kerseys lyned."

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Earle, Alice Morse

Baizes, plain cloths, and kerseys were the most important of the manufactures, and there was some commerce in these with Spain.

From Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts by Northcote, Rosalind