Fabric, The 'Mercury' Dictionary of Textile Terms defines 'fabric' as a term which covers all textiles no matter how constructed, how manufactured, or the nature of the material from which made, and the expression 'textile' is described as any product manufactured from fibres through twisting, interlacing, bonding, looping, or any other means, in such a manner that the flexibility, strength, and other characteristic properties of the individual fibres are not suppressed. The Man-Made Textile Encyclopaedia (1959) defines fabric as a collective term applied to cloth no matter how constructed or manufactured and regardless of the kind of fibre from which made. In structure it is planar produced by interlacing yarns, fibres or filaments. Textile fabrics include the following varieties, bonded, felted, knitted, braided and woven. The Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles (1959) says that fabric is a cloth that is woven or knit, braided, petted, with any textile fibre ... and 'textile' is said to refer to a broad classification of any material that can be worked into fabric, such as fibres and yarns including woven and knitted fabric, felt, netted fabric, laced and crouched goods. In Textile Terms and Definitions, 1960, the word cloth is defined as a generic term embracing all textile fabrics and laminar felts and 'textile' is applied in its modern sense to any manufacture from fibres, filaments, or yarns, natural or artificial, obtained by interlacing. The 1967 Annual Book of ASTM Standards defines cloth as any textile fabric but specially one de-signed for apparel, domestic or industrial use and textile fabric as a planar structure consisting of interlaced yarns or fibres. The 1973 Annual Book of ASTM Standards reproduced those definitions, Delhi Cloth and General Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1980 SC 1552 (1554): (1980) 4 SCC 71: (1980) 3 SCR 1109.
The fabric which is woven includes the weft which means yarn woven across the width of the fabric through the lengthwise yarn. Thus the activity of the weaving involves passing of the weft through the warp, Ess Dee Carpet Enterprises v. Union of India, AIR 1980 SC 455 (457): (1990) 1 SCC 461.
Means woven material, Union of India v. Gujarat Woollen Felt Mills, AIR 1977 SC 1548 (1549): (1977) 2 SCC 870: (1977) 3 SCR 472.