floss

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

floss, n. [It. floscio flabby, soft, fr. L. fluxus flowing, loose, slack. See Flux, n.].

•  The slender styles of the pistillate flowers of maize; also called silk.  [1913 Webster]
•  Untwisted filaments of silk, used in embroidering.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.

floss, n. [Cf. G. floss a float.].

•  A small stream of water.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fluid glass floating on iron in the puddling furnace, produced by the vitrification of oxides and earths which are present.  [1913 Webster]

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.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

floss, n. & v.
--n.
1 the rough silk enveloping a silkworm's cocoon.
2 untwisted silk thread used in embroidery.
3 = dental floss.
--v.tr. (also absol.) clean (the teeth) with dental floss.

Idiom

floss silk a rough silk used in cheap goods.

Etymology

F (soie) floche floss(-silk) f. OF flosche down, nap of velvet

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

floss

Roughness

N roughness, tooth, grain, texture, ripple, asperity, rugosity, salebrosity, corrugation, nodosity, arborescence, pilosity, brush, hair, beard, shag, mane, whisker, moustache, imperial, tress, lock, curl, ringlet, fimbriae, pili, cilia, villi, lovelock, beaucatcher, curl paper, goatee, papillote, scalp lock, plumage, plumosity, plume, panache, crest, feather, tuft, fringe, toupee, wool, velvet, plush, nap, pile, floss, fur, down, byssus, moss, bur, fluff, knot (convolution), rough, uneven, scabrous, scaly, knotted, rugged, rugose, rugous, knurly, asperous, crisp, salebrous, gnarled, unpolished, unsmooth, roughhewn, craggy, cragged, crankling, scraggy, prickly, arborescent, leafy, well-wooded, feathery, plumose, plumigerous, laciniate, laciniform, laciniose, pappose, pileous, pilose, trichogenous, trichoid, tufted, fimbriated, hairy, ciliated, filamentous, hirsute, crinose, crinite, bushy, hispid, villous, pappous, bearded, pilous, shaggy, shagged, fringed, befringed, setous, setose, setaceous, like quills upon the fretful porcupine, rough as a nutmeg grater, rough as a bear, downy, velvety, flocculent, woolly, lanate, lanated, lanuginous, lanuginose, tomentose, fluffy, against the grain, cabello luengo y corto el seso.