Also winsey, -ie. Pl. -eys, occas. -ies. [orig. Sc.; app. alteration of woolsey in LINSEY-WOOLSEY, through the medium of the assimilated form *linsey-winsey.] A very durable cloth having a linen warp and a woollen weft. (occas. A garment made of this.) Also attrib.
1808. Jamieson, Winsey, adj. Of or belonging to wool…. Cotton-winsey denotes what is made of cotton and wool; Linen-winsey, of linen and wool, linsey-woolsey.
1810. Jas. Duff, Poems (1816), 2. Her winsies war made by sweet Modesty’s rule.
1858. E. B. Ramsay, Remin., v. (1859), 161. A striped wincey apron.
1862. Cornh. Mag., Nov., 695. She afterwards found some wincey and a number of pieces of coburg.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 4032. Dress wincies.
1893. Mrs. C. Praed, Outlaw & Lawmaker, xi. All varieties, from the honest brown and grey wincey to the Park turn-out.
1907. Mrs. C. Kernahan, Fraud, iv. 29. She … wore a brown winsey dress.
