fabric

plural fabrics · alternative obsolete fabrick

1. archaiccountableuncountableAn edifice or building.

   Anon out of the earth a fabric huge / Rose like an exhalation.

   1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   1 more example

   They withdrew from the gate, as if to depart, but he presently thought he heard them amongst the trees on the other side of the fabric, and soon became convinced that they had not left the abbey.

   1791, Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest, Oxford 1999, page 86

2. archaiccountableuncountableThe act of constructing, construction, fabrication.

   Tithe was received by the bishop […] for the fabric of the churches for the poor.

   1855, Henry Hart Milman, History of Latin Christianity

3. archaiccountableuncountableThe structure of anything, the manner in which the parts of a thing are united; workmanship, texture, make.

   cloth of a beautiful fabric

4. countableuncountableThe physical material of a building.

   This church dates back to the 11th century, though the great majority of its fabric is fifteenth century or later.

5. countablefigurativelyuncountableThe framework underlying a structure.

   the fabric of our lives

   2 more examples

   Only with the second actor, can plot, […] the reaction of man on man, be knit into the very fabric of dramatic art.

   1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “I. Introduction”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, pages 19–20

   I thought the best match of sympathy with reality was in Fritz Matthies' Pauline's Birthday or the Beast of Notre Dame. It was a surprise, not just because of its ending, but because there was a real fabric in the characters' relationships. In this, it outweighs The Deputy and all its high drama.

   1982 December 25, Peg Byron, “The 1982 New York Gay Film Festival”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 23, page 12

6. countableuncountableA material made of fibers; especially, a woven one.

   cotton fabric

   1 more example

   Near-synonym: cloth (not always differentiated)

   Synonyms: material, textile, cloth

7. countableuncountableThe texture of a cloth.
8. countableuncountablegeographyThe appearance of crystalline grains in a rock.
9. countableuncountablearchaeologyThe fired clay material of pottery artifacts.
10. countableuncountablecomputingInterconnected nodes that look like a textile fabric when diagrammed.

    The Internet is a fabric of computers connected by routers.

present singular third person fabrics · participle present fabricking · participle past fabricked · past fabricked · alternative obsolete fabrick

1. transitiveTo cover with fabric.

   Fabricking and Carpeting a Room. If your ballroom's walls are in need of a paint job, or the space feels cavernous, or your tent is just looking too bare, you can have the ceiling and walls draped with fabric to create an intimate enclave.

   2016, Mindy Weiss, Lisbeth Levine, The Wedding Book