flannel

Etymology

From Middle English flaunneol, from Anglo-Norman flanelle (compare Norman flianné), diminutive of Old French flaine, floene (“coarse wool”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *wlānos, *wlanā (“wool”) (compare Welsh gwlân, Breton gloan), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. More at wool.

noun

1. (uncountable) A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.
   With the weather turning colder, it was time to dig out our flannel sheets and nightclothes.
   First singer and guitarist Marcus Mumford, wearing a black suit, then bassist Ted Dwane, in leather bomber and T-shirt. Next bearded banjo player Winston Marshall, his blue flannel shirt hanging loose, and pianist Ben Lovett, wrapped in a woollen coat. 15 November 2012, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph
2. (New Zealand, Britain, countable) A washcloth.
3. (US, countable) A flannel shirt.
4. (slang, uncountable) Soothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap.
   Don't talk flannel!

adj

1. Made of flannel.

verb

1. (transitive) To rub with a flannel.
2. (transitive) To wrap in flannel.
3. (transitive) To flatter; to suck up to.
4. (transitive, slang) To waffle or prevaricate.
   I got a little cross and asked him to stop flannelling and to tell me what was holding me back. Were my annual assessments below par? Was there something I had done – or not done? 2016, J. F. Langer, From the Spitfire Cockpit to the Cabinet Office