buckram

plural buckrams

1. uncountableusuallyA coarse cloth of cotton, linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in bookbinding to cover and protect the books, in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise.

   Four rogues in buckram let drive at me—

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

   1 more example

   Buckram was probably from the first a stiffened material employed for lining, often dyed.

   1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 557

2. uncountableusuallyA crab that has just molted; a papershell.

present singular third person buckrams · participle present buckraming · participle past buckramed · past buckramed · participle past buckrammed · past buckrammed

1. transitiveTo stiffen with or as if with buckram.

plural buckrams · alternative buckrams

1. A plant of species Allium ursinum, also called ramson, wild garlic, or bear garlic.