Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A fine lustrous fiber composed mainly of fibroin and produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons, especially the strong, elastic, fibrous secretion of silkworms used to make thread and fabric.
- noun Thread or fabric made from this fiber.
- noun A garment made from this fabric.
- noun A silky filamentous material spun by a spider or an insect such as a webspinner.
- noun A silky filamentous material produced by a plant, such as the styles forming a tuft on an ear of corn.
- noun The brightly colored identifying garments of a jockey or harness driver.
- adjective Composed of or similar to the fiber or the fabric silk.
- intransitive verb To develop silk. Used of corn.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To be in course of earing: said of growing Indian corn.
- noun A fine soft thread produced chiefly by the larvæ of various bombycid moths, especially of Bombyx (Sericaria) mori, known as silkworms, feeding on the leaves of the mulberry and several other trees. (See
Bombyx and silkworm, and comparegut , 4.) - noun A similar thread or fiber spun by various other insects, especially some spiders; a kind of cobweb or gossamer. Some such webs are lustrous, and may be reeled like true silk. See
Nephila , and cut undersilk-spider . - noun Cloth made of silk; by extension, a garment made of such cloth.
- noun The mass of long filiform styles of the female flower of maize: so called from their resemblance in the unripe state to silk in fineness and softness.
- noun The silky down in the pod of the milkweed (hence also called
silk-weed ). - noun The silkiness or silky luster often observed in the sapphire or ruby, due to the inclusion of microscopic crystals between the crystalline layers of the gem. The silk is visible only on what would be the pyramid faces of the crystals.
- Made of silk; silken: as, a silk dress; silk stockings.
- Silk-like; silky.
- A king's or queen's counsel.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The fine, soft thread produced by various species of caterpillars in forming the cocoons within which the worm is inclosed during the pupa state, especially that produced by the larvæ of
Bombyx mori . - noun Hence, thread spun, or cloth woven, from the above-named material.
- noun That which resembles silk, as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize.
- noun silk as it is wound off from the cocoons, and before it is manufactured.
- noun a cottony substance enveloping the seeds of the silk-cotton tree.
- noun (Bot.) a name for several tropical trees of the genera Bombax and Eriodendron, and belonging to the order Bombaceæ. The trees grow to an immense size, and have their seeds enveloped in a cottony substance, which is used for stuffing cushions, but can not be spun.
- noun (Bot.) A similar tree (
Calliandra trinervia ) of Peru. - noun (Zoöl.) a breed of domestic fowls having silky plumage.
- noun (Zoöl.) a gland which secretes the material of silk, as in spider or a silkworm; a sericterium.
- noun [Eng.] the distinctive robe of a barrister who has been appointed king's or queen's counsel; hence, the counsel himself. Such a one has precedence over mere barristers, who wear
stuff gowns . - noun (Bot.) a kind of grass (
Stipa comata ) of the Western United States, which has very long silky awns. The name is also sometimes given to various species of the genera Aqave and Yucca. - noun (Zoöl.) the adult moth of any silkworm. See
Silkworm . - noun a coarse, rough-woven silk, like plush, but with a stiffer nap.
- noun (Zoöl.) a large spider (
Nephila plumipes ), native of the Southern United States, remarkable for the large quantity of strong silk it produces and for the great disparity in the sizes of the sexes. - noun one who twists or spins silk, and prepares it for weaving.
- noun (Bot.) an Asiatic leguminous tree (
Albizzia Julibrissin ) with finely bipinnate leaves, and large flat pods; -- so called because of the abundant long silky stamens of its blossoms. Also calledsilk flower . - noun (Zoöl.) Same as Silk gland, above.
- noun (Bot.) a climbing plant (
Periploca Græca ) of the Milkweed family, having a silky tuft on the seeds. It is native in Southern Europe.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable A fine
fiber excreted by thesilkworm or otherarthropod (such as aspider ). - noun uncountable A fine, soft
cloth woven from silk fibers. - noun The gown worn by a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel
- noun colloquial a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel
- adjective Made of silk
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a fabric made from the fine threads produced by certain insect larvae
- noun animal fibers produced by silkworms and other larvae that spin cocoons and by most spiders
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As the Oxford statutes have recently been published, the matter is not so much in the dark, -- black silk being the material prescribed for the lining of hoods of Doctors in Divinity, and those of the doctors in the other faculties being prescribed to be of _silk of any intermediate colour_, which the Oxford doctors understand to mean a deep rose-colour.
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There are two kinds of silk (1) _raw silk_ (reeled silk, thrown silk, drawn silk), and (2) _waste silk_ or spun silk.
Vegetable Dyes Being a Book of Recipes and Other Information Useful to the Dyer Ethel M. Mairet
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_A cotton and silk umbrella_ means one umbrella partly cotton and partly silk; _cotton_ and _silk_ modify the same noun -- _umbrella_.
Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition Brainerd Kellogg
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GRATTAN said of Hussey Burgh, who had been a great Liberal, but, on getting his silk gown, became a Ministerialist, that all men knew silk to be a non-conducting body, and that since the honorable member had been enveloped _in silk_, no spark of _patriotism_ had reached his heart.
The Jest Book The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings Mark Lemon 1839
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They disclaim, however, all desire of employing compulsory measures for that purpose, but recommended every mode of encouragement, and particularly by augmented wages, "_in order to induce manufacturers of wrought silk to quit that branch and take to the winding of raw silk_."
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12) Edmund Burke 1763
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Imperialis flava to be dressed in silk from the Flowery Land – that robe of imperial yellow which only General Gordon and the blood royal of
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They transferred me to what they called the silk mill of the same company.
Oral History Interview with James Pharis, 1977 July 24. Interview H-38. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). By James Pharis James Pharis 1977
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They transferred me to what they called the silk mill of the same company.
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Therefore, in order to be fair to the buyer who purchases his material by weight, they have in all great silk centres what they call silk-conditioning houses, where they test the goods to find out how much water is in it.
The Story of Silk Sara Ware Bassett 1920
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_polytricum commune_, or great golden maidenhair, which they call silk - wood, and find plenty in the bogs.
The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 Gilbert White 1756
qroqqa commented on the word silk
also n. a Q.C.
(take silk: become a Q.C.)
August 7, 2008
bilby commented on the word silk
QC = Queen's Counsel, an overstuffed barrister.
August 7, 2008
kewpid commented on the word silk
They only make SCs these days.
August 7, 2008
bilby commented on the word silk
How stuffed are they?
October 26, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word silk
"The Chinese were indeed the first people in the world to make silk, possibly as early as 4000 BCE, if an ivory carving with a silkworm motif on it, from the Hemudu site in Zhejiang, constitutes proof of silk manufacture. According to the Hangzhou Silk Museum, the earliest excavated fragment of silk dates to 3650 BCE and is from Henan Province in central China. Skeptical of such an early date, experts outside of China believe the earliest examples of silk date to 2850-2650 BCE, the time of the Liangzhu culture (3310-2250 BCE) in the lower Yangzi valley.
"In the first century CE, when the Periplus was written, the Romans did not know how silk was made. Pliny the Elder (CE 23-79) reported that silk cloth had made its way to Rome by the first century. ...
"China was not the only manufacturer in silk in Pliny's day. As early as 2500 BCE, the ancient Indians wove silk from the wild silk moth, a different species of silkworm than the one the Chinese had domesticated. In contrast, the Indians collected broken cocoons that remained after the silk worms had matured into moths, broken through their cocoons, and flown away. Similarly, in antiquity, the Greek island of Cos in the eastern Aegean produced Coan silk, which was also spun from the broken cocoons of wild silk moths. Early on, the Chinese had learned to boil the cocoons, which killed the silk worms, leaving the cocoons intact and allowing the thread to be removed in long, continuous strands. Even so, Chinese silk cannot always be distinguished from wild silk, and it is possible that Pliny may have described Indian or Coan, not Chinese, silk."
--Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History (Oxford and New York: Oxford UP, 2012), 19
December 30, 2016