a. In 4 bissyn, bijcen. [ad. L. byssin-us, a. Gr. βύσσινος made of byssus.]

1

  1.  Made of byssus or fine linen.

2

1656.  Blount, Glossogr., Byssine, silken, or which is made of fine flax or cloth.

3

1715.  trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., I. I. v. 14. That delicate Down … which sticks to a certain kind or Shellfish … whence are made a sort of Garments called Byssine.

4

1849.  Kingsley, Misc. (1859), II. 173. The East sent to Rome 2000 years ago its ‘byssine garments.’

5

1877.  Plumptre, Sophocles, 407. Æneas … on his shoulders bears his sire, Who lets his byssine mantle fall in folds.

6

  2.  quasi-sb. [L. byssinum.] = BYSS sb.1

7

1382.  Wyclif, Rev. xix. 8. And it is ȝouun to hir, that she couere hir with whijte bijce [1388 bissyn] shijnynge; forsothe bijcen [1388 bissyn, Vulg. byssinum] ben the iustifiynges of seyntis.

8

1821.  Lockhart, Valerius, II. iii. 106. Perhaps a yellow byssine would suit me better.

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