Also 7 baptist. [a. F. batiste = Baptiste, according to Littré and Scheler from the alleged original maker, Baptiste of Cambray; according to others, from its use in wiping the heads of children after baptism.]
The French word for cambric; applied, in commerce, to a fine light fabric of the same texture, but differently finished, and made of cotton as well as of linen. Often attrib.
1697. C’tess. D’Aunoy’s Trav. (1706), 155. A sort of a Gown made of their Baptist Cloth very fine.
1863. B. Taylor, H. Thurston, xviii. 240. Wiped her eyes with a very small batiste handkerchief.
1880. Miss Braddon, Asph., I. vi. 188. A graceful, gracious figure in a pale yellow batiste gown.
