dishclout

plural dishclouts

1. obsoleteA dishcloth.

   O, he's a lovely gentleman! / Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam, / Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye / As Paris hath.

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]

   2 more examples

   Upon the present occasion, he bustled in and out of the kitchen, till Mrs. Dods lost patience, and threatened to pin the dish-clout to his tail; a menace which he pardoned, in consideration, that in all the countries which he had visited, which are sufficiently civilized to boast of cooks, these artists, toiling in their fiery element, have a privilege to be testy and impatient.

   1823 December 23 (indicated as 1824), [Walter Scott], chapter XVII, in St Ronan’s Well. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 262-3

   Then he had bent and kissed her parted lips, gently at first, then passionately, drawing her, dishclout and suds and all, into his strong brown arms.

   1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XIII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 213