Calico \Cal"i*co\, a. Made of, or having the appearance of, calico; -- often applied to an animal, as a horse or cat, on whose body are large patches of a color strikingly different from its main color. [Colloq. U. S.]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Calico \Cal"i*co\, n.; pl. Calicoes. [So called because first imported from Calicut, in the East Indies: cf. F. calicot.]

1. Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. [Eng.]

The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. --Beck (Draper's Dict. ).

2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern.

Note: In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.

Calico bass (Zo["o]l.), an edible, fresh-water fish (Pomoxys sparaides) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; -- called also calicoback, grass bass, strawberry bass, barfish, and bitterhead.

Calico printing, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)