alpaca

plural alpacas

1. countableuncountableA sheep-like domesticated animal of the Andes, Vicugna pacos, in the camel family, closely related to the llama, guanaco, and vicuña.

   Away from the village, there was an enclosure containing several large animals of a kind I had not seen before—shaggy, long-necked, small-headed creatures who stood or lay at ease around their pen. Alpacas?

   1989, Octavia E. Butler, “Part III, Chapter 7”, in Imago, page 210

2. uncountableWool from the alpaca, with strong very long fibres and coloring from black to brown to white.

   A lady in frayed alpaca, carrying a house-flannel, came to hearken.

   1918 [1915], Thomas Burke, Nights in London, New York: Henry Holt and Company

3. countableuncountableA garment made of such wool.

   The dress was at the bottom, — it was an alpaca, of a pretty shade in blue, bedecked with lace and ribbons, as is the fashion of the hour, and lined with sea-green silk.

   1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle