Forms: 7 comby, camlee, 8 comley, kummul, cumly, 9 camly, cumbly, kumlee. [Hind. kamlī:—Skr. kambala.] A blanket, a coarse woollen cloth.
1673. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P. (1698), 54 (Y.). The Natives … wrapping themselves in a Comby or Hair-cloath.
1696. Ovington, Voy. Suratt, 455 (Y.). Camlees, which are a sort of Hair Coat made in Persia.
1781. Prison Expenses of Hon. J. Lindsay, in Lives of Lindsays (1849), III. 328 (Y.). One comley as a covering.
1798. G. Forster, Journ. Bengal to Eng., I. 194 (Y.). A large black kummul, or blanket.
1842. Maj. Kennedy, in Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 319. The common sheep of the plains of India, with a coarse fleece … from which the kumlees or coarse blankets are manufactured.
1885. Macm. Mag., Nov., 77/2. Rough country blankets, or cumblies, striped in black and white.
