waistcloth

English

Etymology

waist +‎ cloth

Noun

waistcloth (plural waistcloths)

1. A cloth or garment worn around the waist.
   • 1791, Alexandre (fils) Dumas, The Son of Clemenceau‎^[1]:

     Two rows of slate beds, three of which only were occupied; two men and a boy, nude save a waistcloth; over their heads--sluggishly swayed by the air the new-comer had carelessly admitted--their clothes were hung like shapeless shadows.

   • 1897, Frank T. Bullen, The Cruise of the Cachalot‎^[2]:

     He was dressed in all the dignity of a woollen shirt, with a piece of fine "tapa" for a waistcloth, feet and legs bare.

   • 1916, Joseph Altsheler, The Hunters of the Hills‎^[3]:

     Fresh leaves had been stripped from a bush and a tiny fragment or two indicated that the Ojibway had torn a piece from his deerskin waistcloth to fasten over the leaves.

2. (nautical) A covering of canvas or tarpaulin for the hammocks, stowed on the nettings, between the quarterdeck and the forecastle.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “waistcloth”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)