weft

The horizontal threads that are interlaced through the warp in a woven fabric.

Noun business, manufacturing

  1. The horizontal threads that are interlaced through the warp in a woven fabric.
    • It is all the more remarkable therefore that in one respect — weft colours — some of the pirnless looms are more versatile than conventional machines. Figure 6 shows the colour mechanism of a conventional loom designed...
    • Other techniques for shaping included angling one or both loom bars, adding extra wefts, or adjusting warp tension. - 1979, Eric Broudy, The Book of Looms: A History of the Handloom from Ancient Times to the Present,...
    • 1993, Anni Albers, On Weaving, note on Plate 17, page 48, To give greater firmness to the basket-weave plain weave, thin weft threads can be introduced that will be covered by the heavier pattern wefts of the basket...
  2. The yarn used for the weft; the fill.
  3. A hair extension that is glued directly to a person′s natural hair.
    • Teaching tools include mannequins, slip-ons, hair wefts, rectangles, and profiles. - 2009, Cosmetologists: 150 Great Tech Prep Careers, 2nd edition, page 135:
    • Then, she held up the hair as it would look on my head. She positioned it like a pro, holding wefts of human hair so that it looked like it grew from my scalp. - 2011, Ryan Rayston, The Quiet Sound of Disappearing,...
    • In the bonding method of attaching hair extensions, hair wefts or single strands are attached with an adhesive or bonding agent. The adhesive is applied to the weft with an applicator gun. - 2012, Cengage Learning,...

Origin

From Middle English wefte, from Old English wefan (“to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *weban, from Proto-Germanic *webaną. Equivalent to weave + -t (abstract nominal suffix).

Forms

wefts

Synonyms

woof fill weave

Derived

warp and weft weftwise

Noun alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative spelling of waif.
    • The gentle Lady, loose at randon left, / The greene-wood long did walke, and wander wide / At wilde aduenture, like a forlorne weft, - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […]...
    • [Y]ou are Lord o'the ſoyle Sir, Lilly is a Weft, a Stray, ſhee's yours, to uſe Sir, […] - 1625 (date written), Iohn Fletcher, [Philip Massinger], The Elder Brother. A Comedie. […], London: […] F[elix] K[ingston] for...

Origin

Compare waif.

Forms

wefts