Wort des Tages
23 February 2026
couching fabric
a sheet of fabric used to separate sheets of paper during pressing
Warum dieses Wort
The name comes from the French coucher, to lay down: the wet sheet is laid off the mould onto the fabric, not peeled off it. In a press post the fabrics do double duty, keeping sheets apart and drawing water out as the pile is squeezed.
In use
Don't stack them bare, get a couching fabric between every sheet or you'll pull the whole post apart wet.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.