different between worsted vs yarn

English

Etymology 1

Named after Worsted (now Worstead), a town in Norfolk, England.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: wo?os?t?d, IPA^(key): /?w?s.t?d/
• (US): enPR: wo?os?t?d, wûrst??d, IPA^(key): /?w?s.t?d/, /?w?.st?d/

Noun

worsted (countable and uncountable, plural worsteds)

1. Yarn made from long strands of wool.
   • 1761, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Volume III, Chapter 29,^[1]

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

   • 1871, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 1:^[2]

     […] the kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again […]
2. The fine, smooth fabric made from such wool yarn.
   • 1838, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 4,^[4]

     [...] 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 blue worsted stockings very much out of repair.

Hyponyms

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

Translations

Etymology 2

Participle adjective of the verb worst.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: wûst??d, IPA^(key): /?w??.st?d/
• (US) enPR: wûrst??d, IPA^(key): /?w?.st?d/

Verb

worsted

1. simple past tense and past participle of worst

Adjective

worsted (comparative more worsted, superlative most worsted)

1. Defeated, overcome.

Translations

Anagrams

• Tedrows, strowed, trowsed, wedtros

English

Etymology

From Middle English yarne, ?ern, yarn, from the Old English ?earn (“yarn, spun wool”), from Proto-West Germanic *garn, from Proto-Germanic *garn? (“yarn”), from Proto-Indo-European *??orn-, *??er- (“tharm, guts, intestines”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: yân, IPA^(key): /j??n/
• (US) enPR: yârn, IPA^(key): /j??n/
• Rhymes: -??(r)n

Noun

yarn (countable and uncountable, plural yarns)

1. (uncountable) A twisted strand of fiber used for knitting or weaving.
2. (nautical) Bundles of fibers twisted together, and which in turn are twisted in bundles to form strands, which in their turn are twisted or plaited to form rope.
3. (countable) A story, a tale, especially one that is incredible.

Synonyms

• (story or tale): story, tale

Hyponyms

• (en, fiber strand): worsted

Derived terms

• yarn-beam
• yarn-spinner
• yarnwindle

Related terms

• spin a yarn

Translations

See also

• hank
• twine
• thread

Verb

yarn (third-person singular simple present yarns, present participle yarning, simple past and past participle yarned)

1. To tell a story or stories.
   • 1935, Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains (U.S. title: The Last of Mr Norris), Chapter Thirteen, in The Berlin Stories, New York: New Directions, 1963, p. 152,^[1]

     “Well, well!” exclaimed Mr. van Hoorn. “Here are the boys! As hungry as hunters, I’ll be bound! And we two old fogies have been wasting the whole afternoon yarning away indoors. My goodness, is it as late as that? I say, I want my tea!”

   • 1942, Neville Shute, Pied Piper, New York: William Morrow & Co., Chapter 7,^[2]

     They had stayed in some little pension and had gone for little, bored walks while the colonel went out in the boats with the fisherman, or sat yarning with them in the café.

Derived terms

• yarner

Translations

Anagrams

• Arny, N-ray, NYRA, Ryan, n-ary, nary

Middle English

Noun

yarn

1. Alternative form of yarne