GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 2 definitions

1.       
   Nankeen , n. [So called from its being originally manufactured at Nankin (Nanjing), in China.] [Written also nankin.]
   A species of cloth, of a firm texture, originally brought from China, made of a species of cotton (Gossypium religiosum) that is naturally of a brownish yellow color quite indestructible and permanent.
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   An imitation of this cloth by artificial coloring.
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   pl. Trousers made of nankeen.
   Ld. Lytton.
   
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   Nankeen bird (Zool.), the Australian night heron (Nycticorax Caledonicus); -- called also quaker.
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2.       
   Quaker , n.
   One who quakes.
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   One of a religious sect founded by George Fox, of Leicestershire, England, about 1650, -- the members of which call themselves Friends. They were called Quakers, originally, in derision. See Friend, n., 4.
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   Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of repentance . . . The trembling among the listening crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and lay struggling as if for life.
   Encyc. Brit.
   
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   (Zool.) (a) The nankeen bird. (b) The sooty albatross. (c) Any grasshopper or locust of the genus Edipoda; -- so called from the quaking noise made during flight.
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   Quaker buttons. (Bot.) See Nux vomica. -- Quaker gun, a dummy cannon made of wood or other material; -- so called because the sect of Friends, or Quakers, hold to the doctrine, of nonresistance. -- Quaker ladies (Bot.), a low American biennial plant (Houstonia cærulea), with pretty four-lobed corollas which are pale blue with a yellowish center; -- also called bluets, and little innocents.
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