The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dowlas \Dow"las\, n. [Prob. fr. Doullens, a town of Picardy, in
France, formerly celebrated for this manufacture.]
A coarse linen cloth made in the north of England and in
Scotland, now nearly replaced by calico.
--Shak.
Wiktionary
n. A coarse linen cloth made in the north of England and in Scotland, later replaced by calico.
Wikipedia
Dowlas is the name given to a plain cloth, similar to sheeting, but usually coarser.
It is made in several qualities, from line warp and weft to two warp and weft, and is used chiefly for aprons, pocketing, soldiers' gaiters, linings and overalls. The finer makes are sometimes made into shirts for workmen, and occasionally used for heavy pillow-cases.
The word is spelled in many different ways, but the above is the common way of spelling adopted in factories, and it appears in the same form in Shakespeare's First Part of Henry IV, Act III scene 3. The dowlas of the early twentieth century was a good, strong and closely woven linen fabric.
Usage examples of "dowlas".
Pangloss but by the unctuous humour and irresistible comic force of the character of Daniel Dowlas, Lord Duberly.
Daniel Dowlas, as Lord Duberly, is all the droller for being a retired tallow-chandler, ignorant, greasy, conventional, blunt, a sturdy, honest, ridiculous person, who thinks he has observed how lords act and who intends to put his gained knowledge into practical use.
Dick Dowlas, intoxicated by vanity and prosperity, has no harm in him, and he turns out well at last.
I went with the throng, jostled alike by velvet and dowlas, by youths with their estates upon their backs and naked fantastically painted savages, and trampling the tobacco with which the greedy citizens had planted the very street.