Name of a town in the south of Wiltshire, noted since the reign of Queen Elizabeth for the manufacture of carpets: applied to † (a) a kind of cloth, (b) a carpet of which the manufacture resembles that of Brussels carpet but differing in having the rib cut so as to produce a velvet pile.
1773. Pennsylv. Gaz., 21 April, 1/1. Fine broadcloths, cassimers, saggathies, and Wiltons. Ibid. (1774), 10 Aug. Suppl. 2/2. Wilton and Scotch carpets.
1776. Pennsylv. Even. Post, 21 May, 256/2. A brick coloured Wilton coattee.
1889. Conan Doyle, Micah Clarke, xxiii. As soft and velvety as a Wilton carpet.
1904. Bradbury, Carpet Manuf., i. 43. The difference in shade was greatest in Wilton and Velvet pile structures. Ibid., iv. 127. The wire used for Wilton is usually deeper and therefore produces a loftier pile than Brussels.