muslin

plural muslins · alternative muselin

1. uncountableusuallytextileAny of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.

   A bleached or unbleached thin white cotton cloth, unprinted and undyed. [Nineteen varieties are thereafter listed.]

   1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, volume 2, page 1502

   2 more examples

   […] my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 11, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.

   1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01

2. USuncountableusuallyFabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.

   Other very different styles of fabric are now indifferently called muslins, and the term is used differently on the respective sides of the Atlantic.

   1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, volume 2, pages 1502–1503

3. uncountableusuallyAny of a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.
4. USuncountableusuallyWoven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
5. countableusuallyA mock-up of a garment pattern made of inexpensive fabric for the purpose of optimizing its fit on the wearer, before the garment is produced in more expensive fabric.

   Fitting this pattern is tricky, so we recommend you make a muslin first.

6. uncountableusuallyAny of several different moths, especially the muslin moth, Diaphora mendica.
7. uncountableusuallyWoman as sex object; prostitute, as in a bit of muslin.

   "That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm—who was she?” asked the fascinating student.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC