tissue

Pluraltissues

Formstissues, tissuing, tissued

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A thin, soft sheet of absorbent paper, especially one used for blowing the nose, as toilet paper, or for wrapping.

   He pulled a tissue from the box and wiped the spilled coffee.

   A damp tissue is no use once it starts to fall apart.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Soft absorbent paper considered as a material rather than as a single sheet.

   Each ornament was packed in layers of delicate tissue.

   Tissue crumples easily, so it cushions fragile items well.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A group of similar cells that work together to carry out a specific function in the body.

   The biopsy revealed abnormal tissue in the patient's lung.

   Connective tissue holds the body's organs in their proper places.

   Note

   Biology gives the word a precise boundary. A tissue is not only its cells but also any extracellular matrix around them, so the material between the cells counts as part of it. In ordinary use it is usually a mass noun after a modifier, as in brain tissue, lung tissue and connective tissue. The plural, tissues, is used for different kinds.

4. 4
   nounusually singular

   An intricate web or connected series of things, especially an elaborate fabrication.

   His confident testimony proved to be a tissue of falsehoods.

   The article was a tissue of rumors stitched together as fact.

   Similarweb, fabric, tangle

   Note

   The weaving behind the gauze-like fabric lives on here as metaphor: a tissue is something knitted together. The usual frame is a tissue of followed by a plural, as in a tissue of lies or a tissue of forgeries, and it is usually a damning one. A. J. Balfour's The Religion of Humanity (1888) shows a gentler use, a "living tissue of religious emotion" to clothe agnosticism's dry bones.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   Thin woven fabric that is light and gauze-like.

   The dancer's costume floated around her, cut from sheer woven tissue.

   Bolts of fine tissue were stacked at the back of the draper's shop.

   Similargauze

   Note

   A weaver's word at heart: Middle English tissu, from Old French tissu, "woven," the past participle of tistre, "to weave," which goes back to Latin texō. In this, the oldest-looking sense, the weaving is still on the surface. Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Ethel Churchill (1837) sets tissues beside brocades as the stuff of fashionable dress. The plural names pieces or kinds of the fabric.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A delicate, see-through silk cloth, especially a kind patterned in relief or woven with gold or silver threads, used for veils and similar articles.

   The bridal veil was cut from shimmering tissue shot through with silver.

   Court robes of tissue gleamed under the chandeliers.

   Note

   Far from flimsy, this is the cloth of state robes and epic poetry. In Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), "glittering tissues" bear emblazoned holy memorials. Dryden's Virgil (1697) has a robe of tissue "stiff with golden Wire." E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922) still drapes a sky-blue cloak of tissue over shining armor. In older literature, read the word as a sign of luxury, not of thinness.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To form into tissue; to weave or interweave separate things into a connected whole.

   Master weavers tissue gold and crimson into ceremonial robes.

   The novelist manages to tissue several storylines into a single design.

   Similarweave, interweave, intertwine

   Note

   The verb is clearest in its past participle: cloth that is tissued has gold worked into it, the same luxury as the gold-shot silk. Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627) describes a chariot covered with "Cloth of Gold tissued vpon blew," meaning gold woven over a blue ground. The verb inflects regularly: tissues, tissuing, tissued.

8. 8
   nounslangcountable

   The scratch sheet or racing form listing the entries and odds for horse races.

   The old hands at the track swear by the tissue when picking a winner.

   He folded the tissue under his arm and headed for the betting window.

   Note

   Racing slang, and above all a bookmaker's word. Gerald Hammond's The Language of Horse Racing (2016) has bookmakers pricing the first show on advice "from all quarters, particularly the tissue." It takes the definite article, the tissue, like the name of a fixture of the betting day. Away from the track, listeners will hear only paper, so the word is best kept among racegoers.

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