worsted

plural worsteds

1. countableuncountablebusinessYarn made from long strands of wool.

   Finally he took a ball of worsted and tied strings of it across the back passage and across the opposite door.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “In which Three Investigators Come across a Dark Soul”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, pages 144–145

   3 more examples

   An old ſet-ſtitch’d chair, valanced and fringed around with party-colour’d worſted bobs, ſtood at the bed’s head, oppoſite to the ſide where my father’s head reclined.

   1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXIX, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 142

   [T]he kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again; […]

   1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Looking-Glass House”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 2

   "Yes, young people are usually blind to everything but their own wishes, and seldom imagine how much those wishes cost others," said Mrs Garth. She did not mean to go beyond this salutary general doctrine, and threw her indignation into a needless unwinding of her worsted, knitting her brow at it with a grand air.

   1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVII, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VI, page 266

2. countableuncountableThe fine, smooth fabric made from such wool yarn.

   He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck—Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge—an ornament—a charm—a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it?

   1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 207, column 1

   3 more examples

   [T]he undertaker’s wife opened a side door, and pushed Oliver down a steep flight of stairs into a stone cell, damp and dark, forming the ante-room to the coal-cellar, and denominated “the kitchen,” wherein sat a slatternly girl in shoes down at heel, and blue worsted stockings very much out of repair.

   1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 64

   When Flemish weavers settled in East Anglia during the Middle Ages they introduced a technique to the wool trade which produced a cloth of fine fibres and closely twisted yarn. Worstead became the centre for the manufacture of this new material, which came to be known as worsted – after the village.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 414, about Worstead

   The cognitive dissonance is plain to see on the faces of recruiters who pretend clothing is no big deal, but are clearly disappointed if you show up to a job interview in a dark worsted business suit.

   2024 July 20, Derek Guy, “What is ‘mogul style’? Why billionaire bland has had its day”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2024

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of worst

comparative more worsted · superlative most worsted

1. Defeated, overcome.

   The worsted army fled in disarray.

   Synonyms: beaten, recreant, vanquished, foiled, beaten, bested, broken, confounded