a coarse wool cloth in a variety of weaves and colors, either hand-spun and handwoven in Scotland or reproduced, often by machine, elsewhere.
tweeds, garments made of this cloth.
a paper having a rough surface, used especially for certain photographic prints.
William Marcy Boss Tweed, 1823–78, U.S. politician.
a river flowing E from S Scotland along part of the NE boundary of England into the North Sea. 97 miles (156 km) long.
a male given name.
a thick woollen often knobbly cloth produced originally in Scotland
( as modifier )
a tweed coat
(plural) clothes made of this cloth, esp a man's or woman's suit
informal (plural) trousers
1835–45; apparently back formation from Scots tweedling twilling (now obsolete) < ?
Tweed is a kind of speckled fabric made from woven wool. Used for jackets, suits, and coats, tweed is a rough, sturdy material. Tweed was originally tweel, the Scots word for twill, a diagonally-patterned textile weave. In the 1830's the word was misread by a fabric merchant who assumed it came from the Scottish River Tweed, and the name stuck. Woven on looms, rough wool is transformed into tweed's tidy patterns, like herringbone and houndstooth. Most tweed is still made in Scotland for garments including suit jackets, skirts, and trousers, as well as blankets and scarves.
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As Champagne must come from its designated region in France, Harris tweed can only be made in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026
Boxy tweed boucle jackets with fringed trims and structured brightly coloured handbags were the order of day, with various materials including lace also on display.
From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026
Designed by her dressmaker Norman Hartnell, the Queen first wore her Harris tweed jacket and Balmoral Tartan skirt in the 1950s.
From BBC • Dec. 26, 2025
Another is Harris tweed, the manufacturer of a fabric handwoven in the Outer Hebrides, which has risen from near death and now employs hundreds, selling its products all over the world.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025
The whole world before me was a dark herringbone tweed.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
