noun
corduroy
KAW-duh-roy
noun
1
A heavy, ribbed cotton fabric with fine raised, parallel lines running down it.
"He wore a pair of brown corduroy trousers to the interview."
"The jacket was made of thick green corduroy."
2
The rippled pattern left in snow by a grooming machine, popular with skiers and snowboarders.
"The morning run was freshly groomed corduroy, smooth and fast."
adj
1
Describing a road or path built from logs laid side by side across it.
"The old corduroy road still crosses the marsh outside town."
How to Use Corduroy
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA thick fabric with raised ribbed lines, or the similar ribbed pattern left in groomed snow.
Common pairings
corduroy trousers
corduroy jacket
wide-wale corduroy
Word Forms
corduroyed past tense, corduroys plural, corduroys singular
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Etymology
Origin is disputed. It probably comes from "cord" plus "duroy," a coarse English fabric from the 1600s — not, as often claimed, from French for "cloth of the king," a phrase that doesn't actually exist in French.