waistcloth

plural waistcloths

1. A cloth or garment worn around the waist.

   He was dressed in all the dignity of a woollen shirt, with a piece of fine "tapa" for a waistcloth, feet and legs bare.

   1897, Frank T. Bullen, The Cruise of the Cachalot

   3 more examples

   Two rows of slate beds, three of which only were occupied; two men and a boy, nude save a waistcloth; over their heads--sluggishly swayed by the air the new-comer had carelessly admitted--their clothes were hung like shapeless shadows.

   1791, Alexandre (fils) Dumas, The Son of Clemenceau

   A few mats, baskets, and cooking vessels, with plates and basins purchased from the Macassar traders, constitute their whole furniture; spears and bows are their weapons; a sarong or mat forms the clothing of the women, a waist-cloth of the men.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 231

   Fresh leaves had been stripped from a bush and a tiny fragment or two indicated that the Ojibway had torn a piece from his deerskin waistcloth to fasten over the leaves.

   1916, Joseph Altsheler, The Hunters of the Hills

2. historicalnauticalA covering of canvas or tarpaulin for the hammocks, stowed on the nettings, between the quarterdeck and the forecastle.