[Possibly a corruption of F. linon (pronounced linoṅ.).] A kind of cotton gauze, used for caps, veils, curtains, etc. Also attrib.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 388. Twenty year ago … I bought a lot of ‘leno’ cheap—it was just about going out of fashion for caps then.
1866. Mrs. H. Wood, St. Martin’s Eve, ix. (1874), 83. The broad leno lappets of her cap thrown off from her face.
1881. G. Macdonald, Mary Marston, I. ii. 38. He looked up from a piece of leno he was smoothing out.
1894. Daily News, 2 June, 5/3. A large space cut away … and filled in with fine net or leno.
