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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Floss \Floss\ (?; 195), noun [It. floscio flabby, soft, fr. L. fluxus flowing, loose, slack. See {Flux}, noun]
1. (Bot.) The slender styles of the pistillate flowers of maize; also called {silk}.
2. Untwisted filaments of silk, used in embroidering.
3. A body feather of an ostrich. Flosses are soft, and gray from the female and black from the male. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Floss silk}, silk that has been twisted, and which retains its loose and downy character. It is much used in embroidery. Called also {floxed silk}.
{Floss thread}, a kind of soft flaxen yarn or thread, used for embroidery; -- called also {linen floss}, and {floss yarn}. --McElrath.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Floss \Floss\, noun [Cf. G. floss a float.]
1. A small stream of water. [Eng.]
2. Fluid glass floating on iron in the puddling furnace, produced by the vitrification of oxides and earths which are present.
{Floss hole}. (a) A hole at the back of a puddling furnace, at which the slags pass out. (b) The tap hole of a melting furnace. --Knight.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
floss
noun
1: a soft loosely twisted thread used in embroidery
2: a soft thread for cleaning the spaces between the teeth [syn: {dental floss}]
verb: use dental floss to clean; "floss your teeth after every meal"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
33 Moby Thesaurus words for "floss": blubber, breeze, butter, clay, cushion, dough, down, eiderdown, feather bed, feathers, fleece, flue, fluff, foam, fur, fuzz, kapok, lint, pile, pillow, plush, pudding, puff, putty, rubber, satin, silk, swansdown, thistledown, velvet, wax, wool, zephyr
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |