or GAWSE, in commerce, a very thin, slight, transparent kind of stuff, woven sometimes of silk, and sometimes only of thread.—To warp the silk for making of gauze, they use a peculiar kind of mill, upon which the silk is wound: this mill is a wooden machine about six feet high, having an axis perpendicularly placed in the middle thereof, with six large wings, on which the silk is wound from off the bobbins by the axis turning round. When all the silk is on the mill, they use another instrument to wind it off again on two beams: this done, the silk is passed through as many little beads as there are threads of silk; and thus rolled on another beam to supply the loom.

The gauze-loom is much like that of the common weavers, though it has several appendages peculiar thereto. See LOOM.

There are figured gauses; some with flowers of gold and silver, on a silk ground; these last are chiefly brought from China.