Definition of "filature" []

• The act or process of spinning, drawing, or twisting into threads. (noun)
• The act or process of reeling raw silk from cocoons. (noun)
• A reel used in drawing silk from cocoons. (noun)
• An establishment where silk is reeled. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In one appalling calamity, a hundred women died in a fire that engulfed a silk filature because the owner had locked them in from the outside."
• "One of the worst places to work was a silk factory, or filature."
• "Officials say her death at a Green Bay hospital from kidney filature is linked to the E. coli outbreak that spread to at least 19 states."