[F. tricot knitting, knitted work, f. tricoter to knit; of uncertain origin.] Knitting; knitted work or fabric; a woollen fabric, knitted by hand, or by machinery in imitation of hand-knitting; also, name of a woollen fabric (see quot. 1904). Also short for tricot-stitch.
1872. Browning, Fifine, iii. The human beauty … Tricot fines down if fat, padding plumps up if lean.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 128/2. Make a Foundation chain … and work a row of Tricot.
1893. A. Zimmern, trans. Blümner’s Home Life Anc. Grks., xii. 440. The costume and the tricots, as well as the grotesque masks, are worthy of notice.
1898. Daily News, 5 March, 6/4. A mourning walking dress in woollen tricot.
1904. Woollen Draper’s Terms, in Tailor & Cutter, 4 Aug., 480/1. Tricots, a woollen fabric, with diagonals running straight across the piece, and something like cassimere handle.
b. attrib., as tricot-stitch, tricot-work.
1880. B’ham Weekly Post, 2 Oct., 1/5. I have an interminable piece of trico work in hand, which has been my resource for several years.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 128/1. Tricot stitch.… The easiest of crochet stitches, but only suitable for straight work; it is usually worked with Berlin or fleecy wool, and a wooden hook, and is suitable for couvrepieds, counterpanes, muffatees, mufflers, and other warm articles.
