pillow lace
- noun
- Specialized
:
encaje de almohada
- She inherited a beautiful piece of pillow lace from her grandmother.
Examples
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The delicate pattern of the pillow lace caught everyone's attention at the exhibition.
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Demonstrations on how to make pillow lace are given at the local museum.
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Look at that pillow lace!
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What a lovely pillow lace!
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Demonstrations on how to make pillow lace are given at the local museum.
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She inherited a beautiful piece of pillow lace from her grandmother.
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The delicate pattern of the pillow lace caught everyone's attention at the exhibition.
Synonyms
79
2.0
A thin decorative cloth made from threads in open patterns used on clothes
1
6.8
A delicate open pattern of threads used to decorate veils or dresses
1
9.1
A handmade decorative cloth made by twisting thread wound on small wooden spools around pins on a pillow
A fine handmade lace with small flower patterns from Valenciennes in France
A kind of handmade lace with simple shapes and braided edges
Surface Forms
Morphology
pillow + lace
The compound links the familiar nouns 'pillow' and 'lace' in a regular noun+noun pattern, so learners will likely infer it denotes a kind or use of lace related to a pillow (i.e., lace associated with or made using a pillow). However, the exact technical method (bobbins, pins, specific craft technique) is specialised and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so the meaning is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Pillow lace comes from the way the lace is made: the pattern is pinned on a small pillow, and threads wound on small sticks called bobbins are twisted and braided to form the lace. So the name literally points to the pillow used in making it and now means this kind of 'handmade lace'.