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flannel

Pronunciation: /ˈflænəl/

The English word “flannel” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.
  2. A washcloth.
  3. A flannel shirt.
  4. Soothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap.
  5. Synonym of flip (“hot mixture of beer, spirit, etc.”).

adjective

  1. Made of flannel.

verb

  1. To rub with a flannel.
  2. To wrap in flannel.
  3. To flatter; to suck up to.
  4. To waffle or prevaricate.

Etymology

From Middle English flaunneol, from Anglo-Norman flanelle (compare Norman flianné), diminutive of Old French flaine, floene (“coarse wool”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *wlānos, *wlanā (“wool”) (compare Welsh gwlân, Breton gloan), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. More at wool.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.