Also cashmeer, cachemire, -mere. [Cashmere or Kashmīr, name of a kingdom in the Western Himalayas, used attrib.]
a. More fully Cashmere shawl: A costly shawl made of fine soft wool obtained from the Cashmere goat and the wild goat of Tibet. b. The material of which Cashmere shawls are made. c. Also applied to a woollen fabric made in France and England in imitation of the true cashmere.
1822. J. W. Croker, Diary, 11 Jan. She … and Lady Eliz. were dressed in rich cashmeres … the wide borders of the shawls making the flounce of the gown.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, I. xxvi. 226 (L.). If you could bring me a Cachemire shawl…. Perhaps you could get my old friend, Madame De ——, to choose the Cachemire.
a. 1845. Hood, Desert-Born, ii. In yellow folds voluminous she wore her long cachemere.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, i. Fate, Wks. (Bohn), II. 311. You may as well ask a loom which weaves huckaback, why it does not make cashmere.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 35/1. Kashmir (a substitute for flannel).
