worsted

Pluralworsteds

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A fine, smooth cloth woven from long-strand, combed wool yarn.

   His winter suit was tailored from a heavy gray worsted.

   The mill produced fine worsted for tailors across the region.

   Note

   Here the yarn has become the cloth, and East Anglia explains why it bears a Norfolk town's name. The AA Book of British Villages (1980) tells how Flemish weavers settled there in the Middle Ages and how Worstead became the center of the new cloth (the town is introduced under the yarn). Today the word often comes before a noun, as in Derek Guy's "dark worsted business suit" (2024).

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Yarn spun from long, combed strands of wool, with the fibers laid parallel.

   The knitter chose a fine worsted for the cardigan.

   Spinners comb the fleece thoroughly before twisting it into worsted.

   Note

   A town gave this yarn its name: Middle English worstede comes from Worstead, in Norfolk. The noun can be counted (a fine worsted) or used as a mass noun (a ball of worsted). Older fiction often uses it where a modern writer would say wool. In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871), the kitten unwinds the ball of worsted Alice has been trying to wind up.

3. 3
   adjective

   Beaten or overcome in a fight, contest, or argument.

   The worsted challenger conceded the match gracefully.

   Worsted in debate, the senator withdrew his proposal.

   Similardefeated, beaten, vanquished

   Oppositevictorious, triumphant

   Note

   A participle that has settled into an adjective, though it keeps its verbal habits. It sits most naturally after be or in an opening phrase, often with in naming where the defeat happened: worsted in battle, worsted in debate. Comparative forms (more worsted, most worsted) exist, but most uses treat defeat as all or nothing. Its link to worst is traced under the past form of worst.

4. 4
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of worst.

   The champion worsted every opponent in the tournament.

   Their forces worsted the invaders at the border.

   Note

   A regular verb form: the -ed ending serves both the simple past (they worsted the invaders) and the participle (the invaders were worsted). The verb worst once meant "to make worse" (archaic) and "to grow worse" (dated), but those uses have faded. What remains is the rare sense of defeating. The spelling matches the woolen yarn, yet the two are unrelated: this form comes from worst.

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