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kersey

[kur-zee]
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noun, plural ker·seys.
  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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Origin of kersey

1400–50; late Middle English; perhaps after Kersey, in Suffolk, England
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for kersey

Historical Examples

  • The pay was small, often but a shilling a night, and occasionally a "coat of kersey."

    Home Life in Colonial Days

    Alice Morse Earle

  • "We has a bolt o' moleskin and a bolt o' kersey cloth," said Mrs. Twig.

    Left on the Labrador

    Dillon Wallace

  • She had a kersey coat, covered with girdles of wampom from the loins upward.

  • She had a kersey coat, and covered with girdles of wampum from the loins upward.

    Captivity and Restoration

    Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

  • Over the kersey adickey another adickey of some smooth-surfaced, strong material, preferably moleskin, should be worn.

    Packing and Portaging

    Dillon Wallace

British Dictionary definitions for kersey

kersey

noun
  1. a smooth woollen cloth used for overcoats, etc
  2. a twilled woollen cloth with a cotton warp
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Word Origin

C14: probably from Kersey, village in Suffolk
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