Knickerbocker. A cotton dress fabric, woven with a rough, knitted surface. The bunches or knots are formed at regular intervals in the weft and when woven up appear on the surface of the cloth; Knickerbocker is a term applied to the early Dutch settlers of New York, made famous by Washington Irving. The name in recent years has come to be applied to anything as regarded as characteristic of Dutch New York at the time of its early settlement. Thus the loose knee-breeches represented as worn by the Dutch settlers are known as knickerbockers.