any of various fabrics (linen or cotton) used to make towels

Towelling is used for drying and appropriately should be made from absorbent fibres, such as short to medium staple cotton. However, towelling is also made with linen and other natural, absorbent fibres. Can be woven or knitted with Jacquard patterns or simply in plain weave with the loops as extra warp. There are several types of towelling, which include: terry cloth or towelling, turkish towelling, huckerback towelling, honeycomb towelling, crash or knitted towelling also terry velvet. Terry, which is synonymous with turkish towelling usually to means an uncut loop, warp-pile fabric. The loops are created by applying a high tension to the ground warp and varying the tension of the pile warp, which is wound on a second backbeam. The pile is created by varying the position of the fell of the cloth with the position of the reed. The word towel comes from the High German word dwahan, meaning to wash, from which the modern German word zwehle comes.