dishclout

English

Etymology

dish +‎ clout

Noun

dishclout (plural dishclouts)

1. (obsolete) A dishcloth.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 5, [1]

     O, he's a lovely gentleman! / Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam, / Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye / As Paris hath.

   • 1824, Walter Scott, Saint Ronan's Well, Boston: Dana Estes & Co., 1894, Chapter XVII, p. 262-3, [2]

     Upon the present occasion, he bustled in and out of the kitchen, till Mrs. Dods lost patience, and threatened to pin the dish-clout to his tail; a menace which he pardoned, in consideration, that in all the countries which he had visited, which are sufficiently civilized to boast of cooks, these artists, toiling in their fiery element, have a privilege to be testy and impatient.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter XIII, p. 213, [3]

     Then he had bent and kissed her parted lips, gently at first, then passionately, drawing her, dishclout and suds and all, into his strong brown arms.