batiste

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From French batiste, a form of Baptiste, of disputed origin (“according to Littré and Scheler from the alleged original maker, Baptiste of Cambray; according to others, from its use in wiping the heads of children after baptism” – OED).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bəˈtiːst/

Noun

batiste (uncountable)

1. A fine cloth made from cotton or linen; cambric.
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 104

     Clad in a Persian-Renaissance gown and a widow's tiara of white batiste, Mrs Thoroughfare, in all the ferment of a Marriage-Christening, left her chamber on vapoury autumn day and descending a few stairs, and climbing a few others, knocked a trifle brusquely at her son's wife's door.

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 88:

     He had started to stroke her, shivering, staring ahead, following with a blind man's hand the dip of her spine through the batiste.

Translations

fine cloth

• Bulgarian: батиста

• Czech: batist (cs) m
• Finnish: batisti (fi)

Anagrams

• batties, bistate

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Italian

Noun

batiste f

1. Plural form of batista

Anagrams

• sbattei

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Spanish

Verb

batiste (infinitive batir)

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) preterite indicative form of batir.