[a. mod.F. crinoline, f. L. crīnis hair, in sense of F. crin horse-hair + līnum thread, a manufacturer’s name intended to express its composition with warp of thread and woof of horse-hair.]
1. A stiff fabric made of horse-hair and cotton or linen thread, formerly used for skirts (see 2), and still for lining, etc. (For the latter purpose the name is also applied to imitations made of stiffened muslin, etc.)
1830. World of Fashion, Aug., 180. The new stuff called crinoline; it was at first announced as a material for shoes and bottines only, then for bonnets; now it is offered for dresses.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxv. Crinoline or its substitutes is not an expensive luxury.
b. This material or its substitutes (e.g., whale-bone or iron hoops) as used to expand a petticoat: see next.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxxii. I saw them to-day, without any crinoline, pulling the garden-roller.
1859. All Year Round, No. 33. 161. We hear … of a woman in crinoline being blown off a narrow ledge into the water.
1885. Kath. O’Meara, Madame Mohl, ii. 117. A short skirt, guiltless of the faintest suspicion of crinoline.
2. A stiff petticoat made of this stuff, worn under the skirt of a woman’s dress in order to support or distend it; hence, a petticoat lined with, or consisting of, a framework of whalebone, steel hoops, etc., worn for the same purpose; a hoop-petticoat.
1851. Punch’s Almanac, 9. Mrs. H. came out this morning in her crinoline, as if she was not big enough already.
1869. Trollope, He knew, etc. vii. (1878), 38. In the days of crinolines she had protested that she had never worn one.
3. transf. a. A contrivance worn by divers.
1870. Instr. Mil. Engineering, I. 351. The crinoline should be used in deep water … it is placed round the body and tied in front of the stomach … it … enables him to breathe more freely.
b. A netting fitted round war-ships as a defence against torpedoes. Chiefly attrib.
1874. Times, 24 Feb., 5/5, in Ure’s Dict. Arts (1875), II. 207. A strong crinoline framework of booms and spars built up round … her.
1885. Times, 30 April, 10/6. Her crinoline defences against torpedoes.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 July, 5/1. When the Légé torpedo is drawn up against the crinoline of an ironclad it impinges upon it and is then drawn under the crinoline by the wire.
4. attrib., as crinoline cloth, hat (made of cotton braid, and then stiffened like straw), steel, wire.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, II. iii. 38. Crinoline-petticoats.
1850. Harper’s Mag., I. 144/1. Crinoline hats, of open pattern, trimmed generally with a flower or feathers, are worn to the opera.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., viii. (ed. 3), 78. Fifty tons of crinoline wire were turned out weekly from factories.
1882. Worcester Exhib. Catal., iii. 54. Horse-hair crinoline cloth.
1891. Leeds Mercury, 27 April, 4/7. A wide-brimmed pale grey crinoline straw hat.
Hence Crinoline v., to stiffen or provide with crinoline. Crinolined ppl. a., wearing crinoline or a distended petticoat.
1855. De Quincey, in ‘H. A. Page,’ Life (1877), II. xviii. 111. But afterwards … he buckramed or crinolined his graceful sketch with an elaborate machinery of gnomes and sylphs.
1862. T. A. Trollope, Marietta, I. xi. 210. No … crinolined lady can ever reach that mysterious little first floor.
