madras

name

1. Former name of Chennai: the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, India.
2. A city, the county seat of Jefferson County, Oregon, United States.

noun

1. (British, countable, uncountable)A style of curry dish purported to originate from the Madras region.

   “I’ll have the chicken Madras.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A brightly colored cotton fabric with a checked or striped pattern.

   “A black woman in blue cotton gown, red-and-yellow Madras turban […] crouched against the wall.”

   “The service makes available, during limited weekend hours, a handful of the company’s items—cargo shorts, tank tops, and the like—to the Hamptons house guest who discovers that he can’t make it to Monday without purchasing one of those weird madras patchwork blazers”

   “In one area, however, I stick close to my roots: an unreconstructed loved of madras cloth. Madras (pronounced, in the US, with the emphasis on the first syllable) is a lightweight carded cotton cloth with a bright plaid pattern, first produced in and named for the Indian city now known as Chennai.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A large handkerchief of this fabric, worn on the head in the West Indies.
4. (alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable)Alternative form of Madras (“type of curry”).

   “Gerry ordered poppadoms and parathas and then he was interrupted by requests for vindaloos, chicken madrases and sag joshes, rice, raita and nan, from Priest, Morgan and Maria Grazia.”