Lace

Lace, lās, n. a plaited string for fastening: an ornamental fabric of linen, cotton, silk, or gold and silver threads, made by looping, knotting, plaiting, or twisting the thread into definite patterns, of contrasted open and close structure; three distinct varieties are made, two by handiwork, known respectively as Needle or Point lace and Pillow or Bobbin Lace, and one by machinery.—v.t. to fasten with a lace: to adorn with lace: to streak: to mark with the lash: to intermix, as coffee with brandy, &c.: to intertwine.—v.i. to be fastened with a lace.—ns. Lace′-bark tree, a lofty West Indies tree, the inner bark like coarse lace; Lace′-boot, a boot fastened by a lace.—p.adj. Laced, fastened or adorned with lace.—ns. Lace′-frame, a machine used in lace-making; Lace′-leaf (see Lattice-leaf); Lace′-man, one who deals in lace; Lace′-mend′er, one who repairs lace; Lace′-pā′per, paper stamped or cut by hand with an open-work pattern like lace; Lace′-pill′ow, a cushion on which many various kinds of lace are made, held on the knees.—adj. Lā′cy, like lace.—Alençon lace, a very fine point-lace, the most important made in France; Appliqué lace, lace having sprigs or flowers sewed on net; Balloon-net lace, a form of woven lace in which the freeing threads are peculiarly twisted about the warps; Brussels lace, an extremely fine lace with sprigs applied on a net ground; Duchesse lace, a Belgian pillow-lace having beautiful designs with cord outlines, often in relief; Guipure lace, any lace without a net ground, the pattern being held together by bars or brides; Honiton lace, a lace made at Honiton in Devonshire, remarkable for the beauty of its figures and sprigs; Imitation lace, any lace made by machinery; Mechlin lace, a lace with bobbin ground and designs outlined by thread or flat cord; Spanish lace, needle-point lace brought from Spanish convents since their dissolution—but probably of Flemish origin: cut and drawn work made in convents in Spain, of patterns usually confined to simple sprigs and flowers: a modern black-silk lace with large flower-patterns, mostly of Flemish make: a modern needle-point lace with large square designs; Tambour lace, a modern kind of lace made with needle-embroidery on machine-made net; Torchon lace, peasants' bobbin laces of loose texture and geometrical designs, much imitated by machinery; Valenciennes lace, a fine bobbin lace having the design made with the ground and of the same thread. [O. Fr. las, a noose—L. laqueus, a noose.]