antimacassar

noun

1. A cover for the back or arms of a chair or sofa.

   “She was particularly fond of animals, and, besides her canary, whose cage hung on a nail in the massive wall of the keep by day, to the great annoyance of prisoners who relished an after-dinner nap, and was shrouded in an antimacassar on the parlour table at night, she kept several piebald mice and a restless revolving squirrel.”

   “[…] how could anyone on a three-legged stool under the high top of the sofa sleep? Especially if the fringe of an antimacassar lolled over the top and tickled your neck?”

   “The upholstery is of Irish tweed, with antimacassars in Irish linen, and the rugs are hand-woven in Celtic design.”

   “Around the table in the bay window, the slim, japanned dining chairs. The chesterfield suite, antimacassar-draped.”