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Jane Eyre vocabulary
26 fashion terms (clothing, hair styles, fabrics, etc.)
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moreen
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tags: [fashion]
► definition
Definition:A thick woolen fabric, watered or with embossed figures; -- used in upholstery, for curtains, etc.Noah Webster. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)---n. a stout woollen or cotton and woollen stuff, used for petticoats, curtains, &c. [Fr. moire, mohair.]Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (1908)---Heavy mohair, cotton, or silk and cotton cloth, with worsted or moire face. The making of moreen is interesting. The undyed cloth is placed in a trough in as many layers as will take the finish. This finish is imparted to the cloth by placing between the layers sheets of manila paper; the contents of the trough are then saturated with water; a heavy weighted roller is then passed over the wetted paper and cloth, the movement of the roller giving the cloth a watered face. It can then be dyed and refinished. The design or marking of moreen is different on every piece. Moreen was at first made for upholstery and drapery use. It was found to give a rustling sound similar to silk, so was taken up for underskirts. The name is from the French moire, meaning watering.William H. Dooley. Textiles (1914)
► uses
Uses:
I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.
Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre (1847)
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Fatigue would make him passive. It was getting towards the chillest moment of the morning, the fire had got low, and she could see through the chink between the moreen window-curtains the light whitened by the blind.
George Eliot. Middlemarch
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