n.; pl. Calicoes [ So called because first imported from Calicut, in the East Indies: cf. F. calicot. ] 1. Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. Beck (Draper's Dict. ). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric. [ 1913 Webster ]

Calico bass (Zool.), an edible, fresh-water fish (Pomoxys sparaides) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; -- called also calicoback, grass bass, strawberry bass, barfish, and bitterhead. --
Calico printing, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Made of, or having the appearance of, calico; -- often applied to an animal, as a horse or cat, on whose body are large patches of a color strikingly different from its main color. [ Colloq. U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) (a) The calico bass. (b) An hemipterous insect (Murgantia histrionica) which injures the cabbage and other garden plants; -- called also calico bug and harlequin cabbage bug. [ 1913 Webster ]