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Glite Dictionary
Brussels lace

Brussels lace

1 9.1
A fine handmade cloth from Brussels with small open patterns and a raised design
  • noun
translation icon : encaje de Bruselas

Examples

  • Brussels lace.

    Little Women (1994)

  • Only then did she drop the spray gun to extract her handkerchief of Brussels lace, with its point de gaze border, to bring it up to her face.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The wedding dress featured exquisite Brussels lace around the neckline and sleeves.

  • She carefully preserved her grandmother's Brussels lace handkerchief, a treasured family heirloom.

  • The intricate patterns of Brussels lace added elegance to the tablecloth at the fancy dinner.

Synonyms

lace
vsBrussels lace
79 2.0

A thin decorative cloth made from threads in open patterns used on clothes

is a specific fine handmade type often featuring raised applique designs
bobbin lace
vsBrussels lace
  • Specialized
1 9.1

A handmade decorative cloth made by twisting thread wound on small wooden spools around pins on a pillow

is handmade but focuses on fine raised or applique surface details

Surface Forms

Brussels lace singular
Brussels laces plural

Morphology

Brussels + lace

The phrase is a straightforward place-name + product combination: knowing 'Brussels' (a city) and 'lace' (a decorative fabric) lets a learner infer it refers to lace from Brussels. This compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily grasp the basic meaning (even if they might not know specific stylistic details like "raised" or "handmade").

Etymology

Brussels lace may come from the city of Brussels, where skilled makers made very fine, delicate lace by hand and sometimes sewed on tiny raised patterns. That's why Brussels lace now means a fine, handmade lace with delicate raised designs.