worsted

Inherited from Middle English worstede, worsted, from Worstede (now Worstead; Old English *Wurϸestede), a town in Norfolk, England.

• (UK) enPR: wo͝osʹtĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈwʊs.tɪd/
• (US) enPR: wo͝osʹtĭd, wûrstʹĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈwʊs.tɪd/, /ˈwɝ.stɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

worsted (countable and uncountable, plural worsteds)

1. (textiles) Yarn made from long strands of wool.
   • 1761, Laurence Sterne, chapter 29, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman‎^[1], volume III:

     An old set-stitched chair, valanced and fringed around with party-coloured worsted bobs, stood at the bed’s head opposite to the side where my father’s head reclined.

   • 1871, Lewis Carroll, chapter 1, in Through the Looking-Glass‎^[2]:

     […] the kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again […]

   • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVII, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VI, page 266:

     "Yes, young people are usually blind to everything but their own wishes, and seldom imagine how much those wishes cost others," said Mrs Garth. She did not mean to go beyond this salutary general doctrine, and threw her indignation into a needless unwinding of her worsted, knitting her brow at it with a grand air.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     Finally he took a ball of worsted and tied strings of it across the back passage and across the opposite door.

2. The fine, smooth fabric made from such wool yarn.
   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter 4, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

     [...] the undertaker’s wife opened a side door, and pushed Oliver down a steep flight of stairs into a stone cell, damp and dark: forming the ante-room to the coal-cellar, and denominated ‘kitchen’; wherein sat a slatternly girl, in shoes down at heel, and blue worsted stockings very much out of repair.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

     He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck -- Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge -- an ornament -- a charm -- a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it?

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 414, about Worstead:

     When Flemish weavers settled in East Anglia during the Middle Ages they introduced a technique to the wool trade which produced a cloth of fine fibres and closely twisted yarn. Worstead became the centre for the manufacture of this new material, which came to be known as worsted - after the village.

   • 2024 July 20, Derek Guy, “What is ‘mogul style’? Why billionaire bland has had its day”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     The cognitive dissonance is plain to see on the faces of recruiters who pretend clothing is no big deal, but are clearly disappointed if you show up to a job interview in a dark worsted business suit.

• (fine wool fabric): gabardine, serge, tamin, whipcord

• Berlin worsted

Participle adjective of the verb worst.

• (UK) enPR: wûstʹĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈwəː.stɪd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) enPR: wûrstʹĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈwɝ.stɪd/

worsted

1. simple past and past participle of worst

worsted (comparative more worsted, superlative most worsted)

1. Defeated, overcome.

   The army was worsted in battle.

• Tedrows, strowed, trowsed, wedtros

worsted

1. alternative form of worstede