swatch

American  

[swoch] / swɒtʃ /

noun

1. a sample of cloth or other material.

2. a sample, patch, or characteristic specimen of anything.

---

swatch British  

/ swɒtʃ /

noun

1. a sample of cloth

2. a number of such samples, usually fastened together in book form

3. printing

   1. a small sample of colour supplied to the printer for matching during printing

   2. a sample of ink spread on paper by a printer to check the accuracy of a required colour

---

Etymology

Origin of swatch

First recorded in 1505–15; akin to switch

Example Sentences

Marshall recently screened a broad swatch of equities and found 25 stocks that have preannounced at least five times in January since 2011.

From Barron's

Walls were decked in swatches of fire-resistant construction materials with experts available to help homeowners decide how best to rebuild for a chaotic climate future.

From Los Angeles Times

They brought portable weather stations and sensors, as well as swatches of different paving materials such as grass, mulch, turf, rubber and concrete to each site.

From Los Angeles Times

The prestige TV age is the product of creators willing to play with the rules of physics in unexpected ways, thanks to the man who made a broader swatch of the small screen seductively Lynchian.

From Salon

But that paradigm was upended Tuesday night, as a wide swatch of lower elevation Santa Monica was put under an evacuation warning.

From Los Angeles Times