Serge
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A type of worsted cloth. countable, uncountable
"Lucy, who had only seen her in either the large loose wrapping dress of serge, or in the quaint simplicity of the Puritanic garb, then so general in England, could not restrain an exclamation of admiration as she returned to their chamber."
- 2 A large wax candle used in some church ceremonies.
- 3 a twilled woolen fabric wordnet
- 4 A garment made of this fabric. countable, metonymically, uncountable
- 1 To overlock.
Example
More examples"The seneschal gets his packets of dried hashish stems at those dear Serge and Sacha's place."
Etymology
From Middle English sarge, from Old French sarge, serge, from Vulgar Latin *sarica, from Latin sērica (“silken, silk things”), from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), possibly from Old Chinese 絲 (*sə, “silk”). Doublet of silk and seric.
From Middle English cerge, from Old French ci(e)rge, cerge & chierge.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.