flannel

C2+ Topic:Materials & Substances

Also spelled flann’l

US /ˈflænəl/ See IPA manual

Freq #20830

Meanings

1

noun
A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.

With the weather turning colder, it was time to dig out our flannel sheets and nightclothes.
2

noun
A washcloth.

"The Witch of Endor was a fool to her, sir: bless you, she would make no more of raising every gentleman in the Bible out of these here beastly tombs than I should of growing cress on an old flannel.".
3

noun
Soothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap.

Don't talk flannel!
4

verb
To waffle or prevaricate.

I got a little cross and asked him to stop flannelling and to tell me what was holding me back. Were my annual assessments below par? Was there something I had done – or not done?

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Derived forms flannel-mouthflannel-mouthedflannelboardflannelbushflanneletteflannelgraphflannellikeflannellyflannelmouthflannelweedflannenflannie

Simplified etymology

Flannel has been used in English since the Middle Ages and probably comes from Welsh gwlanen, “woolen,” derived from gwlân, “wool.” Its figurative sense “bland or evasive talk” arose as military slang in the 1920s from the fabric’s associations with softness and warmth.

Etymology

From Middle English flaunneol, from Anglo-Norman flanelle (compare Norman flianné), diminutive of Old French flaine, floene (“coarse wool”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *wlānos, *wlanā (“wool”) (compare Welsh gwlân, Breton gloan), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. More at wool.

Topics

Materials & Substances

External links

# flannel

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈflænəl/
**Frequency rank:** 20830

## Meanings
1. A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.
2. A washcloth.
3. Soothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap.
4. To waffle or prevaricate.

## Examples
- With the weather turning colder, it was time to dig out our flannel sheets and nightclothes.
- "The Witch of Endor was a fool to her, sir: bless you, she would make no more of raising every gentleman in the Bible out of these here beastly tombs than I should of growing cress on an old flannel.".
- Don't talk flannel!
- I got a little cross and asked him to stop flannelling and to tell me what was holding me back. Were my annual assessments below par? Was there something I had done – or not done?

## Derived Forms
- flannel-mouth
- flannel-mouthed
- flannelboard
- flannelbush
- flannelette
- flannelgraph
- flannellike
- flannelly
- flannelmouth
- flannelweed
- flannen
- flannie

## Etymology
From Middle English flaunneol, from Anglo-Norman flanelle (compare Norman flianné), diminutive of Old French flaine, floene (“coarse wool”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *wlānos, *wlanā (“wool”) (compare Welsh gwlân, Breton gloan), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. More at wool.

## Topics
- Materials & Substances

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