corduroy

Origin uncertain. Probably from cord +‎ duroy (“a 17th century coarse fabric made in England”). Probably not from French *corde du roi (“cloth of the king”), which is unattested in French,^[1] where the term for the corduroy is velours côtelé. Possibly from cordesoy from corde de soie (“rope of silk or silk-like fabric”), named for example in a 1756 advertisement for clothing fabrics; see Wikipedia article, and comparable in language form to the contemporary serg(e)dusoys (“silk serge”), see Serge (fabric).

• IPA^(key): (Received Pronunciation) /ˈkɔːdəɹɔɪ/, /ˈkɔːdɹɔɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹdəɹɔɪ/

• Audio (US):

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corduroy (countable and uncountable, plural corduroys)

1. A heavy fabric, usually made of cotton, with vertical ribs.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 4, in Crime out of Mind‎^[1]:

     We turned to see a muscular young man lounging in the door which led into the sitting-room. He wore green corduroy trousers, a duffle coat and an old school tie.

2. (obsolete, Ireland, slang) Cheap and poor-quality whiskey.

   Synonym: kill-the-beggar

   • [1834 June 16, John Edgar, “Minutes of Evidence, Monday, the Sixteenth Day of June, 1834”, in Evidence on Drunkenness, London: British and Foreign Temperance Society, published 1834, page 93:

     Another description of what would be termed adulterated spirits, is by the vulgar termed "Corduroy," on account of the rough feeling which it imparts to the tongue and palate.]

   • 1835, Thomas Hood, “Ode to J. S. Buckingham, Esq. M.P.”, in The Comic Annual, pages 135–136:

     To men of common gumption, / Hot strange, besides, must seem / At this time any scheme / To put a check upon potheen's consumption, / When all are calling for Irish Poor Laws! / Instead of framing more laws, / To pauperism if you'd give a pegger, / Don't check, but patronise their "Kill-the-Beggar!" / If Pat is apt to go in Irish Linen, / (Buttoning his coat, with nothing but his skin in) / Would any Christian man -- that's quite himself, / His wits not floor'd, or laid upon the shelf --, While blaming Pat for raggedness, poor boy, / Would deprive him of his "Corduroy!"

3. A pattern on snow resulting from the use of a snow groomer to pack snow and improve skiing, snowboarding and snowmobile trail conditions. Corduroy is widely regarded as a good surface on which to ski or ride.

• (heavy fabric): corduroys, corduroy road, corduroylike

corduroy (not comparable)

1. Of a road, path, etc., paved with split or round logs laid crosswise side by side.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146:

     Swamps had to be crossed by means of corduroy causeways; made by cutting down trees and laying them horizontally on the quivering mass of boggy ground.

corduroy (third-person singular simple present corduroys, present participle corduroying, simple past and past participle corduroyed)

1. To make (a road) by laying down split logs or tree-trunks over a marsh, swamp etc.
   • 1886, Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, chapter 53:

     The night was very dark and it rained heavily, the roads were so bad that the troops had to cut trees and corduroy the road a part of the way, to get through.

   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, pages 827–8:

     But Sherman organized “pioneer battalions” of soldiers and freedmen […] to cut saplings and trees to corduroy the roads, build bridges, and construct causeways.