linsey-woolsey

American  

[lin-zee-wool-zee] / ˈlɪn ziˈwʊl zi /

noun

plural

linsey-woolseys

1. a coarse fabric woven from linen warp, or sometimes cotton, and coarse wool filling.

2. a garment made from this.

3. Archaic. any mixture that is incongruous or of poor quality; jumble.

   That last speech was a linsey-woolsey of stale platitudes.

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linsey-woolsey British  

/ ˈlɪnzɪˈwʊlzɪ /

noun

1. a thin rough fabric of linen warp and coarse wool or cotton filling

2. a strange nonsensical mixture or confusion

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Etymology

Origin of linsey-woolsey

1425–75; late Middle English lynsy wolsye literally, linen cloth, wool cloth, equivalent to lyn ( Old English līn; linen ) + -sy, variant of say cloth (< Old French saie; akin to Medieval Latin sagia kind of weave, Latin sagum cloak) + wol wool + -sye, variant of say

Example Sentences

He sat on the ground, his feet bare, his linsey-woolsey blouse veined with dirt, his dark face caked with mud.

From Literature

Those skimpy sleeves did not even cover her elbows, and the scratchy linsey-woolsey cloth kept her thin shoulders constantly twitching.

From Literature

Hannah Duston is not the heroic protector of white womanhood and the family but the great castrating mother of all men�a Mary Worth in linsey-woolsey.

From Time Magazine Archive

They talk of the wives of pioneers making linsey-woolsey dresses and men chopping down trees, but they omit things like the Monroe Doctrine.

From Time Magazine Archive

The linsey-woolsey costumes looked as if they had just come out of attic trunks.

From Time Magazine Archive