madras
/məˈdɹæs/ noun, proper noun
Forms madrases
- noun A brightly colored cotton fabric with a checked or striped pattern.
- noun A large handkerchief of this fabric, worn on the head in the West Indies.
- proper noun Former name of Chennai: the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, India.
- proper noun A city, the county seat of Jefferson County, Oregon, United States.
- noun (UK) A style of curry dish purported to originate from the Madras region. “I’ll have the chicken Madras.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Madras, former name of the Indian city Chennai, where it was first produced.
The etymology is uncertain; it may derive from Madraspattinam. See Wikipedia for several possible etymologies.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “madras”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details