herringbone

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A pattern consisting of rows of short, slanted parallel lines with the direction of the slant alternating row by row and used in masonry, parquetry, embroidery, and weaving.
• noun A twilled fabric woven in this pattern.
• noun Sports A method of climbing a ski slope with the tips of the skis pointed outward.
• intransitive verb To arrange or decorate with a herringbone pattern.
• intransitive verb To produce a herringbone pattern.
• intransitive verb Sports To ascend a ski slope with the ski tips pointed outward.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The bone of a herring.
• Resembling the spine of a herring: specifically applied to courses of stone laid at an angle, so that the stones in each course are placed side by side, and obliquely to the right and left in alternate courses. It is a kind of ashler common in late Roman and occurring in the earliest medieval work.
• A textile stuff made in this way, as chudders.
• In carpentry, to strengthen (a floor) by herring-bone bridging, that is, with short pieces of studding set diagonally from the lower edge of one beam to near the upper edge of the next.
• In masonry, to build, as a wall, of stone, tiles, or bricks laid at an angle with the horizon so as to show on the face in a series of diagonals, generally in alternate courses so as to produce a continued zigzag.
• To sew or embroider with the herring-bone stitch.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Pertaining to, or like, the spine of a herring; especially, characterized by an arrangement of work in rows of parallel lines, which in the alternate rows slope in different directions.
• adjective a kind of cross-stitch in needlework, chiefly used in flannel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A bone of a herring
• noun A zigzag pattern, especially made by bricks, on a cloth, or by stitches in sewing
• noun skiing A method of climbing a hill by pointing the skis outward in a V-shape to keep from sliding backwards.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a pattern of columns of short parallel lines with all the lines in one column sloping one way and lines in adjacent columns sloping the other way; it is used in weaving, masonry, parquetry, embroidery
• noun a twilled fabric with a herringbone pattern