muslin

Noun

muslin (usually uncountable, plural muslins)

1. (usually, textile) Any of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.
   • […] my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 11, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
   • A bleached or unbleached thin white cotton cloth, unprinted and undyed. [Nineteen varieties are thereafter listed.]1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, volume 2, page 1502
2. (US, usually) Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.
   • Other very different styles of fabric are now indifferently called muslins, and the term is used differently on the respective sides of the Atlantic.1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, volume 2, pages 1502–1503
3. (usually) Any of a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.
4. (US, usually) Woven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
5. (countable, usually) A mock-up of a garment pattern made of inexpensive fabric for the purpose of optimizing its fit on the wearer, before the garment is produced in more expensive fabric.
   • Fitting this pattern is tricky, so we recommend you make a muslin first.
6. (usually) Any of several different moths, especially the muslin moth, Diaphora mendica.
7. (usually) Woman as sex object; prostitute, as in a bit of muslin.
   • "That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm—who was she?” asked the fascinating student.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...