Also 9 dial. floose. [Of doubtful origin. Possibly an adoption of some form of OF. flosche down, pile of velvet; also as adj. in soye flosche (mod.F. soie floche) floss-silk (= It. seta floscia). Possibly, however, there may have been a native Eng. or Scandinavian word floss cognate with FLEECE. Cf. mod.Icel. flos nap of cloth, Da. flos plush (recorded from 17th c.), and Cleveland dial. floss-seave the cotton-grass; also FLOSE v.]
1. The rough silk which envelopes the cocoon of the silk-worm; also see quot. 1835.
1759. Pullein, in Phil. Trans., LI. 56. The common silk-pod, with all its floss, weighs usually but three grains.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 3. Even one kind of silk which occurs in entangled tufts, called floss, is spun like cotton, by the simultaneous action of stretching and twisting.
b.transf. (see quot.)
1846. Smart, Floss, a downy substance in some plants.
1847. Longf., Ev., I. iii.
| Shocks of yellow hair, like the silken floss of the maize, hung | |
| Over his shoulder. |
2. Silk in fine filaments; = FLOSS-SILK.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. I. iii. 22.
| On our locks of chestnut glosses | |
| Wear we many a flowery bell; | |
| Silken threads and silken flosses | |
| Here must play their parts, as well. |
1889. A. N. Carter, Street Life in Madrid, in Century Mag., XXXIX. Nov., 37. Old velvet embroidered with gold and floss formed a number of small covers to this table.
3. A flossy surface; also, a quantity of flossy particles; fluff.
1784. Henley, in Beckford’s Vathek (1868), 160–1, note. The wrong side of tapestry will represent more truly the figures on the right, notwithstanding the floss that blurs them, than any version, the precision and smoothness of the Arabian surface.
1850. Bamford, Tim Bobbin’s Wks., Gloss., Floose, the flyings of wool or cotton.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., I. iv. 121. When woven thick and with a floss, it [cotton] is warm, and suited to quite cool weather.
1891. Labour Commission, Gloss., Floss, the small particles of fibre in the dust given off in the processes of the manufacture of textiles.
4. attrib. and Comb., as floss line, thread, wig, yarn. Also FLOSS-SILK.
1894. Daily News, 7 May, 5/1. Men fish with a *floss line, and one, two, six, or more natural flies on a hook.
1871. MacElrath, Dict. Commerce (Webster, 1879). *Floss-thread, a kind of soft flaxen yarn or thread, used for embroidery.
1864. J. Brown, Horæ Subsec., J. Leech (1882), 28. The footman’s calves and powder, the coachman’s red face and *floss wig, the over-dressed lady and plethoric gentleman in the carriage, he depicts with the happiest strokes.
