calico, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

calico adj.

[the cotton cloth]

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

1775		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.
1861		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].
1956		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.

1858		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.
1900		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.

1855		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.
1862		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.
1869		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.
1872		Memphis Dly Appeal (TN) 17 Apr. 4/4: Tomorrow night the great calico ball will come off at the Peabody hotel.
1877		News & Herald (Winnsboro, SC) 19 June 3/1: Remember the Fireman’s Calico Hop to-night.
1879		London Life 4 May 1: [headline] barmen returning from a calico ball.
1878		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.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Oct. 3/1: The Rockhampton Freemasons give a ‘calico ball’ on the 18th inst.
1882		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’.
1883		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.
1887		Dly Eve. Bulletin (Maysville, KY) 19 Jan. 3/3: The most stupendous, the grandest! The calico hop, Oddfellows’ Hall, Friday night.
1894		Lincoln Courier (NE) 17 Mar. 9/2: The Comus club gave a calico ball Thursday evening.
1897		Morn. Times (Wash., DC) 14 Feb. 4/4: The Calico Hop [...] promises to be a most enjoyable occasion.
1901		Guthrie Dly Leader (OK) 8 Apr. 8/3: Have a good time at the calico ball at the Legislature hall tonight.
1908		Brownsville Herald (TX) 15 Feb. 4/1: Miss irwin attended the calico hop.
1909		Shiner Gaz. (TX) 11 Feb. 4/2: There is a calico ball announced for Feb. 13.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1913		Kentucky Irish American (Louisville, KY) 10 May 3/2: The Ladies’ Auxiliary will give their select calico hop Monday night.
1920		Manchester Democrat (IA) 11 Feb. 5/3: A ‘calico hop’ was to be given in the city hall.
1920		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.
1934		Emma G. Sterne [title] Calico Ball [DA].

calico jimmy (n.)

a bourgeois, a capitalist.

1904		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’.
1905		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.

1963		(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.
2001		(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.’.