Green’s Dictionary of Slang

calico adj.

[the cotton cloth]

1. thin, wasted [the thinness of the cloth].

[UK]Sheridan Duenna I i: ’Tis well the catterwauling puppy made his escape – a minute more, and I would have made a riddle of his calicoe carcase.
G.A. Sala Seven Sons of Mammon n.p.: A shrewd, down-east Yankee once questioned a simple Dutchman out of his well-fed steed, and left him instead a vile calico mare in exchange [F&H].
[US]H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 205: Once a pretty girl, calico and eyes averted, awkward and shy, stood watching us.

2. female.

[UK]W. Pratt Ten Nights in a Bar-Room III i: I dropped him once, and I’ll do it again, and heavy too, if he troubles my calico doings any more.
[US] E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 26: calico, adj. Pertaining to women students.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

calico ball (n.) (also calico hop) [the calico (rather than silk or satin) dresses worn by the women]

(US) a cheap, popular public dance; the premise was that the dresses would then be sent to charity.

[UK]Staffs. Sentinel 24 Mar. 3/6: A well-known fashionable lady resident in New York issued some 500 cards for a calico-dress ball on behalf of the poor.
[UK]Belfast Morn. Chron. 20 Mar. 4/5: We had a ‘calico ball’ here a few nights ago (writes a Quebec correspondent) [...] the ladies [...] are expected to appear in calico dresses, which they afterwards send [...] for the benefit of the poor.
[UK]Leicester Jrnl 3 Dec. 3/1: The ‘calico hop’ has reached Illinois. It is the hired girl jumping out of a second-floor window with the family spoons.
[US]Memphis Dly Appeal (TN) 17 Apr. 4/4: Tomorrow night the great calico ball will come off at the Peabody hotel.
[US]News & Herald (Winnsboro, SC) 19 June 3/1: Remember the Fireman’s Calico Hop to-night.
[UK]London Life 4 May 1: [headline] barmen returning from a calico ball.
[Scot]Edinburgh Eve. News 28 Feb. 2/4: At a meeting of the Glasgow Calico Ball Committee it was decided to hand over £1400 to the Western Infirmary.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Oct. 3/1: The Rockhampton Freemasons give a ‘calico ball’ on the 18th inst.
[UK]G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) Nov. 521: They impart the element of relaxation into every one of their social observances, from [...] ‘surprise parties’ to ‘hotel hops’ and ‘calico balls’.
[Aus]Sportsman (Melbourne) 3 Jan. 2/5: There was a ‘calico ball’ lately [...] at which the line of social distinction wax not too strictly drawn, and Mary Jane Slavey had penniaeion to go.
[US]Dly Eve. Bulletin (Maysville, KY) 19 Jan. 3/3: The most stupendous, the grandest! The calico hop, Oddfellows’ Hall, Friday night.
[US]Lincoln Courier (NE) 17 Mar. 9/2: The Comus club gave a calico ball Thursday evening.
[US]Morn. Times (Wash., DC) 14 Feb. 4/4: The Calico Hop [...] promises to be a most enjoyable occasion.
[US]Guthrie Dly Leader (OK) 8 Apr. 8/3: Have a good time at the calico ball at the Legislature hall tonight.
[US]Brownsville Herald (TX) 15 Feb. 4/1: Miss irwin attended the calico hop.
[US]Shiner Gaz. (TX) 11 Feb. 4/2: There is a calico ball announced for Feb. 13.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
Kentucky Irish American (Louisville, KY) 10 May 3/2: The Ladies’ Auxiliary will give their select calico hop Monday night.
[US]Manchester Democrat (IA) 11 Feb. 5/3: A ‘calico hop’ was to be given in the city hall.
[US]El Paso Herald (TX) 24 Apr. 12/4: Grand Overall and Calico Ball, Cotillion Hall [...] Some time for the calicos some place for the overalls. Prizes for the best examples of economy.
Emma G. Sterne [title] Calico Ball [DA].
calico jimmy (n.)

a bourgeois, a capitalist.

[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Apr. 3/1: ‘Never mind,’ shouted the Calico Jimmy in the tram, ‘the day will come when they'll raise a monument to George Houston Held’.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘The Individualist’ in Roderick (1967–9 II) 330: ’Tis the cant of the Calico Jimmy, of the Fatman with front as of brass, / Of the parson, the boodler and lawyer, and the hopelessly dull middle class.
calico queen (n.)

(US) a prostitute.

[US](con. 1870s) Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 14: The names by which the frontiersmen referred to the ladies in question [...] calico queens, painted cats.
[US](con. late 19C) C. Jeffords Shady Ladies of the Old West 🌐 In the Kansas trail towns common terms included [...] ‘nymphs du prairie’, ‘calico queens’, and ‘painted cats.’.