brocade

From Occitan brocada and Spanish and Portuguese brocado, influenced by French brocart, from Italian broccato, from brocco, ultimately from Gaulish

• IPA^(key): /bɹəˈkeɪd/
• Rhymes: -eɪd

brocade (countable and uncountable, plural brocades)

1. (countable, uncountable) A thick heavy fabric into which raised patterns have been woven, originally in gold and silver; more recently any cloth incorporating raised, woven patterns.[1]
2. An item decorated with brocade.
3. Any of several species of noctuid moths such as some species in the genera Calophasia and Hadena
   • 2016, P.P. Mary et al, Akshay Kumar Chakravarthy et al, editors, Arthropod Diversity and Conservation in the Tropics and Sub-tropics‎, Springer, →ISBN:

     Other species considered occasional migrants have become established in the UK in recent years, such as the ... sombre brocade, Blair's mocha, Flame brocade, and Clifden nonpareil.

4. (metaphoric) A decorative pattern.
   • 1826, Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, A picturesque and topographical account of Cheltenham, and its Vicinity:

     The shrubbery around the cottages is a brocade of lawns and shrubs intermixed, in fancy patterns, with gravel walks, in various directions, which wind into the woods.

   • 1976, Annemarie Schimmel, Pain and Grace: A Study of Two Mystical Writers of Eighteent-Century Muslim India, page 126:

     It is as though the poets and mystics were weaving a colorful brocade of words with the intention to please God and to show His greatness to the world.

   • 2012, Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea, →ISBN, page 36:

     Saying this, Rikyu stepped into the garden, shook a tree and scattered over the garden gold and crimson leaves, scraps of the brocade of autumn!

brocade (third-person singular simple present brocades, present participle brocading, simple past and past participle brocaded)

1. To decorate fabric with raised woven patterns.

• bar code, barcode