drapery

From Middle English draperie, from Old French draperie, from drap (“drape, sheet, large cloth”), ultimately of Germanic origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɹeɪpəɹi/

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drapery (countable and uncountable, plural draperies)

1. (uncountable) Cloth draped gracefully in folds.
2. (countable) A piece of cloth, hung vertically as a curtain; a drape.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 306:

     The windows gleamed with light through the boughs—a small open space gave to view the left wing of the building—he could distinctly see the long range of illuminated apartments, figures moving to and fro, and the richly coloured fall of the draperies.

3. The occupation of a draper; cloth-making, or dealing in cloth.
   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

     He made also statutes for the maintenance of drapery and the keeping of wools within the realm

4. Cloth, or woollen materials in general.
   • 1859, Thomas Macaulay, The Life of William Pitt:

     people who ought to be weighing out grocery or measuring out drapery

• ale-drapery