1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Calico \Cal"i*co\, noun; pl. {Calicoes}. [So called because first imported from Calicut, in the East Indies: cf. F. calicot.]

1. Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. [Eng.]

The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. --Beck (Draper's Dict. ).

2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern.

Note: In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.

{Calico bass} (Zo["o]l.), an edible, fresh-water fish ({Pomoxys sparaides}) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; -- called also {calicoback}, {grass bass}, {strawberry bass}, {barfish}, and {bitterhead}.

{Calico printing}, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico.