green baizen.
/ˌɡriːn ˈbeɪz/, U.S. /ˌɡrin ˈbeɪz/ Baize of a green colour, used esp. to cover tables for cards or gaming; (also) the fine worsted cloth (not properly baize, which is coarser) used to cover billiard and snooker tables; (hence) such a table. Also in allusive use. Frequently attributive.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric made from specific material > made from wool > [adjective] > coarse
wadmal1522
kersey1577
minikin1604
green baize1758
hodden-clad1812
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric made from specific material > made from wool > [noun] > coarse or rough > baize > types of
burelc1300
bure1585
minikin1594
green baize1758
bocking1759
orange-list1830
1758 J. Hill Gardener's New Kal. ii. vi. 207 Preserve them [sc. petals] also from the heat of the full sun, by covering these glasses with a piece of green baize.
1797 E. Gunning Orphans of Snowdon I. 47 It contains exactly the same prayers..you read every day in the old book, covered with green baize, the only difference is, that this has a finer outside.
1812 Dramatic Censor 1811 col. 362 'Tis bekase I'm a poet you see, That I kiver my head with green baize.
1843 Ecclesiologist 2 31 The carving however being concealed by a green-baize lining.
1853 C. Dickens Bleak House xxvi. 257 Gentlemen of the green baize road who could discourse, from personal experience, of foreign galleys and home treadmills.
1880 R. Browning Clive in Dramatic Idyls 103 Cocky fancied that a clerk must feel Quite sufficient honor in bending over one green baize.
1924 W. Deeping Three Rooms xxxvi. 320 She had dealt with the silver, and it lay bright and smudgeless on a sheet of green baize.
1980 A. J. Quinnwill Man on Fire xvii. 218 He rattled the dice and tossed them out onto the green baize.
2000 K. Atkinson Emotionally Weird (2001) 336 No-one was wielding a cue and the green baize of the large billiards table was currently occupied by the apparently unconscious body of Gilbert.
Derivatives
green-ˈbaized adj. covered with green baize; (also occasionally) conducted on a table of green baize.
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1815 Times 25 Sept. 4/5 (advt.) Entrance lobby, enclosed with 2 green baized doors.
1877 Punch 7 Apr. 156/1 The bad old days of the cards, and spinning balls, and green-baized tables.
1978 Times 11 July 15/1 He brought snooker into prominence at a time when billiards was the only green-baized game which gentlemen would consent to play.
2001 R. Hill Dialogues of Dead (2003) xii. 115 At the other side of the room stood a green-baized antique card table.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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