U.S. local. [app. a. Du. feil, given in Bomhoff’s Dict. as variant or synonym of dweil floor-cloth, corresp. to ON. þvegill towel:—OTeut. *þvagilo-z f. *þwahan (OE. þwéan) to wash.] A cloth used for wiping a floor or a table after scrubbing, a house-flannel.
1851. Eliz. Warner, The Wide, Wide World, II. xxii. (1852), 368. ‘A file!’… ‘Oh, I remember now,’ said Ellen, smiling;—‘it is so long since I heard the word, I didn’t know what you meant. Margery calls it a dish-cloth, or a floor-cloth, or something else.’
1860. in Bartlett, Dict. Amer.
1889. in Farmer, Americanisms.
