BROCADE, or BROCADE, a stuff of gold, silver, or silk, raised and enriched with flowers, foliage, and
other ornaments, according to the fancy of the merchants or manufacturers.
Formerly the word signified only a stuff, wove all of gold, both in the warp and in the woof, or all of silver, or of both mixed together; thence it passed to those of stuffs in which there was silk mixed, to raise and terminate the gold or silver flowers: But at present all stuffs, even those of silk alone, whether they be grograms of Tours or of Naples, fattins, and even taffeties or lustrings, if they be but adorned and worked with some flowers, or other figures, are called brocades.