trapunto

American

[truh-poon-toh] / trəˈpʊn toʊ /

noun

plural

trapuntos

quilting having an embossed design produced by outlining the pattern with single stitches and then padding it with yarn or cotton.

trapunto British

/ trəˈpʊntəʊ /

noun

a type of quilting that is only partly padded in a design

"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

Etymology

Origin of trapunto

1920–25; < Italian: embroidery, noun use of the adj.: embroidered, literally, pricked through (past participle of trapungere ), equivalent to tra- (< Latin trā-, variant of trāns- trans- ) + -punto < Latin pūnctus, equivalent to pung- (stem of pungere to prick) + -tus past participle suffix; see puncture

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“With her trapunto paintings, she’s essentially collapsing the boundaries between painting and quilting.”

From New York Times • Apr. 25, 2023

The 2015 menswear shows were awash in dreamcatcher necklaces, embroidered caftans, trapunto dashikis and hand-tooled leather doodads.

From Slate • Oct. 24, 2014

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023