The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cordwain \Cord"wain\ (k?rd"w?n), n. [OE. cordewan, cordian, OF. cordoan, cordouan, fr. Sp. cordoban. See Cordovan.] A term used in the Middle Ages for Spanish leather (goatskin tanned and dressed), and hence, any leather handsomely finished, colored, gilded, or the like.
Buskins he wore of costliest cordwain.
--Spenser.
Wiktionary
n. a leather from Córdoba originally of tanned goatskin later of horsehide.
Usage examples of "cordwain".
Longarm thought, nodded, and said, "That would be the late Amarillo Cordwain, shot down like a dog by a sweet little thing as he was on his way to another man's funeral in the rain, right?
The distraught Maureen O'Boyle gave me the idea when she said she'd shoot Cordwain on sight.
But, as in the case of Cordwain, the brute had told others here in town where he hailed from.
It all started late last winter with Amarillo Cordwain gunning that Irish railroad man, right?
Like Amarillo Cordwain, Texas Tom, and all them others, he was mostly too lazy to work and too dumb to cheat at cards.
I'd heard Amarillo Cordwain had spent a lot of time in prison, getting known in the Biblical sense by a lot of other shady young men with no visible means of support.
And he began by buying the best cordwain that could be had in town, and none other would he buy.
The cordwain belt slung at his hips supported a dagger on either side.