Inherited fromMiddle Englishworstede,worsted, fromWorstede (nowWorstead; Old English*Wurϸestede), a town in Norfolk, England.

• (UK)enPR:wo͝osʹtĭd,IPA^(key):/ˈwʊs.tɪd/
• (US)enPR:wo͝osʹtĭd,wûrstʹĭd,IPA^(key):/ˈwʊs.tɪd/,/ˈwɝ.stɪd/

• Audio(US):

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worsted (countable anduncountable,pluralworsteds)

1. (textiles)Yarn made fromlongstrands ofwool.
   • 1761,Laurence Sterne, chapter 29, inThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman‎^[1], volume III:

     An old set-stitched chair, valanced and fringed around with party-colouredworsted bobs, stood at the bed’s head opposite to the side where my father’s head reclined.

   • 1871,Lewis Carroll, chapter 1, inThrough the Looking-Glass‎^[2]:

     […] the kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball ofworsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again[…]

   • 1871–1872,George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVII, inMiddlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London:William Blackwood and Sons,→OCLC, book VI,page266:

     "Yes, young people are usually blind to everything but their own wishes, and seldom imagine how much those wishes cost others," said Mrs Garth. She did not mean to go beyond this salutary general doctrine, and threw her indignation into a needless unwinding of herworsted, knitting her brow at it with a grand air.

   • 1925 July –1926 May,A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, inThe Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia:Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     Finally he took a ball ofworsted and tied strings of it across the back passage and across the opposite door.

2. Thefine,smoothfabric made from such wool yarn.
   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym;Charles Dickens], chapter 4, inOliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume(please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London:Richard Bentley, […],→OCLC:

     [...] the undertaker’s wife opened a side door, and pushed Oliver down a steep flight of stairs into a stone cell, damp and dark: forming the ante-room to the coal-cellar, and denominated ‘kitchen’; wherein sat a slatternly girl, in shoes down at heel, and blueworsted stockings very much out of repair.

   • 1899 February,Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, inBlackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […],→OCLC, part I:

     He had tied a bit of whiteworsted round his neck -- Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge -- an ornament -- a charm -- a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it?

   • 1980,AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 414, aboutWorstead:

     When Flemish weavers settled in East Anglia during the Middle Ages they introduced a technique to the wool trade which produced a cloth of fine fibres and closely twisted yarn. Worstead became the centre for the manufacture of this new material, which came to be known asworsted - after the village.

• (fine wool fabric):gabardine,serge,tamin,whipcord

• Berlin worsted

Participle adjective of the verbworst.

• (UK)enPR:wûstʹĭd,IPA^(key):/ˈwəː.stɪd/

  • Audio(Southern England):

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• (US)enPR:wûrstʹĭd,IPA^(key):/ˈwɝ.stɪd/

worsted

1. simplepast andpastparticiple ofworst

worsted (comparativemoreworsted,superlativemostworsted)

1. Defeated,overcome.

   The army wasworsted in battle.

• Tedrows,strowed,trowsed,wedtros

worsted

1. Alternative form ofworstede