lisle

¹

[ lahyl ]

noun

1. knit goods, as gloves or hose, made of lisle thread.
2. lisle thread.

adjective

1. made of lisle thread.

Lisle

²

[ leel lahyl ]

noun

1. Leconte de Lisle.
2. Rouget de Lisle.
3. former name of Lille.
4. a town in northeastern Illinois.

lisle

/ laɪl /

noun

1. 1. a strong fine cotton thread or fabric
   2. ( as modifier )

      lisle stockings

Word History and Origins

Origin of lisle¹

1850–55; named after Lisle, France, where first made

Word History and Origins

Origin of lisle¹

C19: named after Lisle (now Lille), town in France where this type of thread was originally manufactured

Example Sentences

He watched her snap a red silk garter over the sheer lisle stocking she had pulled up over her shapely leg.

From Literature

“I really look forward to selling our greens this time of year because the flavor is so good,” said Mike Nolan, who grows a variety at his Earth Spring Farm in Car­lisle, Pa.

From Washington Post

Since the Japanese sacked Nanking in 1937, I have worn no silk at all—and the substituted lisle & rayon hosiery are hateful to me.

From Time

I think of orthopedic shoes, lisle stockings, underwear laundered thin and gray, coal cellars.

From Literature

There hadn't been a better one there, and she had silk stockings while most of the girls had clumsy cotton ones, or at best lisle thread.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• cord
• cotton
• fiber
• filament
• hair
• ribbon
• strand
• string
• wire
• wool
• yarn