caddis

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkædɪs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

Unknown. See dialect forms caddew, caddy, cad-bait.

Noun

caddis (countable and uncountable, plural caddises)

1. The larva of a caddis fly. They generally live in cylindrical cases, open at each end, and covered externally with debris.

Etymology 2

From Middle French cadis, from Old French cadaz, from Old Occitan, from Old Catalan cadirs, cadins.

Noun

caddis (countable and uncountable, plural caddises)

1. A rough woolen cloth; caddice.
2. A kind of worsted lace or ribbon.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 293:

     Hee hath Ribbons of all the colours i’ th Rainebow; Points, more then all the Lawyers in Bohemia, can learnedly handle, though they come to him by th’ grosse: Inckles, Caddysses, Cambrickes, Lawnes:

References

• “caddis”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.