dimity

plural dimities · alternative dimmity

1. countableuncountabledated in general usebusinessA light strong fabric with woven stripes or squares.First known use 15th c.

   2009 Fall, Rabbit Goody, Jill Mancy, Interiors: Bug Bars & Slipcovers, Early Homes, page 20, Period slipcovers were typically made of linen and cotton, in woven checks or striped dimities.

   4 more examples

   Strain the ſoup through a piece of dimity into a clean ſaucepan, and let it ſtew till it is of the thickneſs of cream.

   1717, T. Williams, The Accomplished Housekeeper, and Universal Cook, page 134

   The first of these tweels, in respect to the number of leaves, is the dimity cord, which is merely the three leafed tweel turned, a plan of which is subjoined, both for cording and treading.

   1831, John Murphy, A Treatise on the Art of Weaving, Glasgow, page 42

   The drapery should always be perfectly white, of dimity, twilled muslin, or other neat strong material.

   1840, "A Lady", The Workwoman's Guide, page 42

   From the mantelpiece, photographs of Zuleika surveyed the room with a possessive air. Zuleika’s pincushion, a-bristle with new pins, lay on the dimity-flounced toilet-table, and round it stood a multitude of multiform glass vessels, domed, all of them, with dull gold, on which Z. D., in zianites and diamonds, was encrusted.

   1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC

plural dimities · alternative dimmity

1. alternativeAlternative form of dimmity (“dusk, twilight”).

   The twilight fell mistily—it was the first of the autumn mists—and in the dimity the undispersed families of the tawny owl called to each other, the young with keewick and the old with the proper hooroo, hooroo.

   1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter XI, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone)

1. A female given name of modern usage.

   1990, Miss Read (Dora Jessie Saint), Friends at Thrush Green, 2002, page 98, 'Raffle books,' she announced. 'What for?' enquired Dimity, feeling for her purse and about to do a vicar's wife's familiar duty.

2. A surname.

   The Diaper family lived in Sassafras street—the Dimity family in Pepperidge street; and the fathers of the Diaper girls and the Dimity girls were worth about the same money, and had both made it in the lumber line.

   1843, N. P. Willis, “Meena Dimity: Or Why Mr. Brown Crash Took His Tour”, in George R. Graham, Rufus W. Griswold, editors, Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art, volumes 22-23, page 134