huckaback

English

Noun

huckaback (countable and uncountable, plural huckabacks)

1. A type of coarse, absorbent cotton or linen fabric used for making towels.
   • 1876, Eliza Bisbee Duffey, Our Behaviour: A Manual of Etiquette and Dress of the Best American Society, Philadelphia:

     On the right of the washstand should be the towel-rack, on which should be found one fine and two coarse towels and two more very coarse huckaback or Turkish towels. Beneath the washstand should be placed the foot-bath.

   • 1910, H G Wells, The History of Mr Polly, page 27:

     "Say I can't dress a window, you thundering old Humbug," he said, and hurled the huckaback at his master. He followed this up by pitching first a blanket, then an armful of silesia, then a window support out of the window into the shop.

Translations

coarse cotton or linen

• Irish: anairt f

References

• “huckaback”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.