flannel

noun

1. (uncountable)A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.

   “With the weather turning colder, it was time to dig out our flannel sheets and nightclothes.”

   “First singer and guitarist Marcus Mumford, wearing a black suit, then bassist Ted Dwane, in leather bomber and T-shirt. Next bearded banjo player Winston Marshall, his blue flannel shirt hanging loose, and pianist Ben Lovett, wrapped in a woollen coat.”

   “There’s a communal memory of [Kurt] Cobain’s wearing flannel in this video, and that this image was the dawn of grunge fashion.”

2. (British, New-Zealand, countable)A washcloth.

   “"The Witch of Endor was a fool to her, sir: bless you, she would make no more of raising every gentleman in the Bible out of these here beastly tombs than I should of growing cress on an old flannel."”

3. (US, countable)A flannel shirt.
4. (slang, uncountable)Soothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap.

   “Don't talk flannel!”

5. (UK, countable, obsolete, uncountable)Synonym of flip (“hot mixture of beer, spirit, etc.”).

adj

1. (not-comparable)Made of flannel.

verb

1. (transitive)To rub with a flannel.
2. (transitive)To wrap in flannel.
3. (transitive)To flatter; to suck up to.
4. (slang, transitive)To waffle or prevaricate.

   “I got a little cross and asked him to stop flannelling and to tell me what was holding me back. Were my annual assessments below par? Was there something I had done – or not done?”