chambray

What it means

1. countableuncountableA soft fabric woven with a white weft and coloured warp.First known use 18th c.

   She lies wrapped in a book muslin bedgown, a chambray gauze shift, and a french net nightcap.

   1793, Jane Austen, “A beautiful description of the different effects of Sensibility on different Minds”, in Juvenilia

   3 more examples

   I had bought some jeans and a couple of blue chambray workshirts to replace the kitchen-whites, but such clothes weren't nearly enough.

   2012, Stephen King, 11/22/63, page 787

   Always, the relentless bass of hip-hop blasting in rooms of nautical-themed furnishings, faded driftwood, gingham upholstery, linen and chambray.

   2022, Ling Ma, “G”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN

   When I arrive I spot the novelist, elegantly dressed in a crisp chambray shirt with a striped scarf tied loosely around his neck, sitting in a booth that both commands an excellent view of a room already raucous with lunchtime chatter

   2026 April 4, Jonathan Derbyshire, “Lunch with the FT: Jay McInerney”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3

In a sentence

She lies wrapped in a book muslin bedgown, a chambray gauze shift, and a french net nightcap.

1793, Jane Austen, “A beautiful description of the different effects of Sensibility on different Minds”, in Juvenilia

Where it comes from

1. Frenchcambrai“cambric”
2. Englishchambray

From French cambrai (“cambric”), and its source, Cambrai, the city in France where it originated; probably with alteration after chamber.

First known use: 18th c.