Definition of "grass-cloth" [grass-cloth]

• A thin light kind of linen, called in Chinese hia pu or summer cloth, made in China and the East from the fiber of Bœhmeria nivea and other plants of the nettle family. (noun)
• A thick fabric made in the Canary islands of some vegetable fiber. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "As runways were being assembled for the launch of Fashion Week at Lincoln Center the other day, fashion designer Elie Tahari was three blocks away in a glass-walled condominium on the Hudson River looking over an installation of mid-century furniture and textured grass-cloth wallpaper."
• "The walls were decorated with curling and torn Grateful Dead posters; the floor was covered in a dirty grass-cloth mat; a lava lamp on the table was cracked, liquid pooled beside it."
• "Carli and Merolla make them equivalent to brass money; the former were grass-cloth a yard long, and ten = 100 reis; in 1694 they were changed at Angola for a small copper coin worth 2 1/2 d., and the change caused a disturbance for which five soldiers were shot."