zylon

Noun

zylon (uncountable)

1. A synthetic polymer material, a range of thermoset liquid-crystalline polyoxazole developed in the 1980s.
   • They wore Zylon soft body armor and load-bearing vests accessorized with baton and knife holders […]1999, Tom Clancy, Martin Greenberg, chapter 20, in Shadow Watch,, New York: Berkley Books, page 314
2. An earlier synthetic material.
   • Like many imaginative men, Alexandre felt that he was not made for the century in which he lived, this epoch of appalling tedium all too little relieved by gadgets, by nickel, aluminum, plastic, celluloid, Bakelite, nylon, zylon.1955, Gabrielle Roy, chapter 1, in Harry Binsse, transl., The Cashier, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, page 9
   • I scream, extracting from my closet the zylon jacket I wear only with my collar up (a style she abhors as much as the filthy garment itself).1969, Philip Roth, “The Jewish Blues”, in Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 41