Nan*keen" (?), n. [So called from its being originally manufactured at Nankin, in China.] [Written also nankin.]
1.
A species of cloth, of a firm texture, originally brought from China, made of a species of cotton (Gossypium religiosum) that is naturally of a brownish yellow color quite indestructible and permanent.
2.
An imitation of this cloth by artificial coloring.
3. pl.
Trousers made of nankeen.
Ld. Lytton.
Nankeen bird Zool., the Australian night heron (Nycticorax Caledonicus); -- called also quaker.
© Webster 1913.