Meaning & use
dobby shirt
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablespecialist
A shirt made from fabric woven with a small raised geometric pattern, giving it a subtle texture.
Grammar: Countable: he wore a white dobby shirt.
Patterns
- a dobby shirt in cotton
- wear a dobby shirt
He wore a crisp white dobby shirt to the interview.
A dobby shirt has a subtle texture that plain cotton lacks.
She bought him a blue dobby shirt for his birthday.
Word forms
| plural | dobby shirts |
|---|
Common combinations
- white dobby shirt
- A white dobby shirt looks smart under a jacket.
- cotton dobby shirt
- This cotton dobby shirt feels soft and sturdy.
- dobby shirt fabric
- The dobby shirt fabric has tiny diamonds woven in.
- wear a dobby shirt
- He likes to wear a dobby shirt to work.
- a dobby shirt with texture
- Choose a dobby shirt with texture for a dressy look.
Synonyms and how they differ
- textured shirt
- Textured shirt is a general phrase, and dobby names a specific weaving method.
- oxford shirt
- An Oxford shirt uses a basket weave, so it is a different cloth from dobby.
- patterned shirt
- Patterned shirt could mean printed, while dobby patterns are woven into the cloth.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: dobby shirt or jacquard?
dobby shirt vs jacquard
Jacquard weaving makes larger, more complex designs, while dobby makes small geometric patterns.
Practice
What makes a dobby shirt different from a plain shirt?
Choose one answer.
Dobby fabric has a small pattern woven into it during weaving. Printed pictures are applied later, which is the tempting wrong option.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dobby shirt”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.