Brussels | prop. n. (Geography) The capital city of Belgium. Population (2000) = 949, 070 (metro). It has given its name to a kind of carpet, a kind of lace, etc. [ PJC ] Brussels carpet, a kind of carpet made of worsted yarn fixed in a foundation web of strong linen thread. The worsted, which alone shows on the upper surface in drawn up in loops to form the pattern. -- Brussels ground, a name given to the handmade ground of real Brussels lace. It is very costly because of the extreme fineness of the threads. -- Brussels lace, an expensive kind of lace of several varieties, originally made in Brussels; as, Brussels point, Brussels ground, Brussels wire ground. -- Brussels net, an imitation of Brussels ground, made by machinery. -- Brussels point. See Point lace. -- Brussels sprouts (Bot.), a plant of the Cabbage family, which produces, in the axils of the upright stem, numerous small green heads, or “sprouts, ” each a cabbage in miniature, of one or two inches in diameter; the thousand-headed cabbage. -- Brussels wire ground, a ground for lace, made of silk, with meshes partly straight and partly arched. [ 1913 Webster ]
|