tissue

English

Sheets of tissue paper.
Connective tissue magnified 100x.

Etymology

From Middle English tissu, from Old French tissu (“woven”), past participle of tistre (“to weave”), from Latin texō (“to weave”).

Pronunciation

Noun

tissue (countable and uncountable, plural tissues)

  1. Thin, woven, gauzelike fabric.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 65–66:
      Madame Legarde, the "glass of fashion and the nurse of form," (alias the most fashionable of milliners,) has comfortably assured me, "that my figure has great merit, and only requires cultivation:" this is to be done by tissues, brocades, and laces, which are now scattered round me in charming confusion.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 214:
      The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.
  2. A fine transparent silk material, used for veils, etc.; specifically, cloth interwoven with gold or silver threads, or embossed with figures.
  3. A sheet of absorbent paper, especially one that is made to be used as tissue paper, toilet paper or a handkerchief.
    • 2026 September 25, Steve Humphrey, “Daniel Thomas pleads not guilty after dinghy slashed”, in BBC News‎[1], archived from the original on 25 September 2026, retrieved 26 September 2026:
      Prosecutor Kevin Lucie told the court that Thomas, who was seen dabbing his eyes with a tissue at one point during the hearing, slashed an adrift boat with a knife and said: "You are on English territory. This is England. This is not France any more."
  4. Absorbent paper as material.
  6. (biology) A group of cells (along with their extracellular matrix if any) that are similar in origin and function together to perform a specific job.
    • 2014, Robert K. Bolger, Scott Korb, Gesturing Toward Reality: David Foster Wallace and Philosophy‎[2]:
      What they lack is outermost brain tissue that, at least in humans, prompts awareness and interpretation.
  7. Web; texture; complicated fabrication; connected series.
    a tissue of forgeries, or of lies
    • 1888, A. J. Balfour, The Religion of Humanity:
      unwilling to leave the dry bones of Agnosticism wholly unclothed with any living tissue of religious emotion
  8. (horse racing, slang) The scratch sheet or racing form.
    • 1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 7: Aeolus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 123:
      Lenehan came ourt of the inner office with Sport's tissues. —Who wants a dead cert for the Gold cup? he asked.
    • 2016, Gerald Hammond, The Language of Horse Racing:
      Pricing the first show is a matter of the bookmaker's individual judgment, relying upon advice from all quarters, particularly the tissue; but very soon in the betting exchanges it becomes clear that the sole criterion for the fixing of a horse's price is demand.
  9. (Tasmania, informal) A cigarette paper.
  10. (figurative) Anything that is light, thin, and delicate.

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

Verb

tissue (third-person singular simple present tissues, present participle tissuing, simple past and past participle tissued)

  1. (transitive) To form tissue of; to interweave.
  2. (medicine, informal) To have the contents of an injection or intravenous drip leak into the tissue as a result of a ruptured or punctured vein.

References

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

tissue

  1. alternative form of tissu
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