Worsted

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: wo͝osʹtÄ­d, IPA: /ˈwÊŠs.tɪd/
• US: enPR: wo͝osʹtÄ­d, IPA: /ˈwÊŠs.tɪd/, /ˈwɝ.stɪd/

Named after Worsted (now Worstead), a town in Norfolk, England.

Full definition of worsted

Noun

1. Yarn made from long strands of wool.
• Eliot Middlemarch|57"Yes, young people are usually blind to everything but their own wishes, and seldom imagine how much those wishes cost others," said Mrs. Garth She did not mean to go beyond this salutary general doctrine, and threw her indignation into a needless unwinding of her worsted, knitting her brow at it with a grand air.
2. The fine, smooth fabric made from such wool yarn.
• 1902, Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness.He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck -- Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge -- an ornament -- a charm -- a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it?

Hyponyms

• (fine wool fabric) gabardine, serge, tamin, whipcord

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: wûstʹĭd, IPA: /ˈwəː.stɪd/
• US enPR: wûrstʹĭd, IPA: /ˈwɝ.stɪd/

Participle adjective of the verb worst.

Verb

1. worsted

   (past of worst)

Adjective

1. Defeated, overcome.
• 1869, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women.Jo carried her love of liberty and hate of conventionalities to such an unlimited extent that she naturally found herself worsted in an argument.