fabric
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfæb.ɹɪk/
Forms: form: fabrics
form: fabrick
Etymology: Borrowed from French fabrique, from Latin fabrica (“a workshop, art, trade, product of art, structure, fabric”), from faber (“artisan, workman”). Doublet of fabrica, borrowed from Latin, and forge, borrowed from Old French.
Senses: examples: text: Anon out of the earth a fabric huge / Rose like an exhalation.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: They withdrew from the gate, as if to depart, but he presently thought he heard them amongst the trees on the other side of the fabric, and soon became convinced that they had not left the abbey.
ref: 1791, Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest, Oxford 1999, page 86:
glosses: An edifice or building.
examples: text: Tithe was received by the bishop […] for the fabric of the churches for the poor.
ref: 1855, Henry Hart Milman, History of Latin Christianity:
glosses: The act of constructing, construction, fabrication.
examples: text: cloth of a beautiful fabric
glosses: The structure of anything, the manner in which the parts of a thing are united; workmanship, texture, make.
examples: text: This church dates back to the 11th century, though the great majority of its fabric is fifteenth century or later.
glosses: The physical material of a building.
examples: text: the fabric of our lives
text: the fabric of the universe
text: I thought the best match of sympathy with reality was in Fritz Matthies' Pauline's Birthday or the Beast of Notre Dame. It was a surprise, not just because of its ending, but because there was a real fabric in the characters' relationships. In this, it outweighs The Deputy and all its high drama.
ref: 1982 December 25, Peg Byron, “The 1982 New York Gay Film Festival”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 23, page 12:
glosses: The framework underlying a structure.
examples: text: cotton fabric
glosses: A material made of fibers, a textile or cloth.
glosses: The texture of a cloth.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
petrology
glosses: The appearance of crystalline grains in a rock.
topics: archaeology
history
human-sciences
sciences
glosses: The fired clay material of pottery artifacts.
examples: text: The Internet is a fabric of computers connected by routers.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Interconnected nodes that look like a textile fabric when diagrammed.
Synonyms: word: fabric
word: cloth
word: textile
Hypernyms: word: material
Hyponyms: word: brocade
word: camlet
word: chenille
word: chiffon
word: corduroy
word: cretonne
word: crinoline
word: damask
word: denim
word: diaper
word: flannel
word: flannelette
word: foulard
word: gossamer
word: grosgrain
word: lawn
word: macramé
word: marquisette
word: moire
word: ninon
word: plush
word: sateen
word: satin
word: scrim
word: seersucker
word: tweed
word: velvet
word: velveteen
Meronyms: word: yarn
word: fiber
word: filament
word: silk
word: linen
word: cotton
word: flax
word: hemp
word: jute
word: wool
word: elastane
Derived terms: biofabric
couching fabric
fabric conditioner
fabricky
fabricless
fabriclike
fabric softener
geofabric
ichnofabric
microfabric
nanofabric
nonfabric
oblique fabric
self-fabric
stretch fabric
urban fabric
Related terms: word: fur
word: leather
word: :Category:Fabrics
word: :Appendix:Fabrics