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.