Calico (?), n.; 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.]
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The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. Beck (Draper's Dict. ).
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2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern.
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&hand_; In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.
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Calico bass (Zoöl.), 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.
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