The Collaborative International Dictionary
Calico \Cal"i*co\, n.; pl. Calicoes. [So called because first imported from Calicut, in the East Indies: cf. F. calicot.]
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Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc.
The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company.
--Beck (Draper's Dict. ). -
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.
Usage examples of "calico printing".
Mathematical instruments are made of it, also the blocks for calico printing, and it has been employed in wood engraving as a substitute for boxwood, to which, however, it is inferior.