near-silk

The lamp shades can be made of a pretty near-silk, in a plain colour, with a fringe made up of one, two or three of the colours in the chintz.

The Art of Interior Decoration Grace Wood

Near-beer is surely simpler than imitation beer or non-alcoholic beer, and near-silk is better than the long phrase that would have to be used to describe it accurately.

Chapter 6. Tendencies in American. 3. Processes of Word-Formation Henry Louis 1921

The same qualities are in rough-house, water-wagon, near-silk, has-been, lame-duck and a thousand other such racy substantives, and in all the great stock of native verbs and adjectives.

Chapter 1. Introductory. 5. The General Character of American English Henry Louis 1921

” But near-silk and “run slow” remain, and so do “to be in bad, ” “it sure will help, ” “to play it up strong” and their brothers.

Chapter 9. The Common Speech. 5. The Adverb Henry Louis 1921

By Saturday night the dress was ready, and Lila had turned her week's wages back into the coffers of the department store where she worked in exchange for a pair of near-silk brown stockings and a pair of stylish oxford ties of patent leather.

It, and Other Stories Gouverneur Morris 1914

Briskow resembled nothing so much as one of those hideous "crayon enlargements" he had seen in farmhouses -- atrocities of an art long dead -- for she was clad in an old-fashioned basque and skirt of some stiff, near-silk material, and her waist, which buttoned far down the front and terminated in deep points, served merely to roof over but not to conceal a peculiarity of figure which her farm dress had mercifully hidden.

Flowing Gold Rex Ellingwood Beach 1913

Mostly they seemed to have used an old near-silk quilted bathrobe of mine, but

Torchy and Vee Sewell Ford 1907

He wore a figured near-silk vest won at an Oak Creek raffle, and large checked trousers said to be the latest fashion some years back, when he squandered his money on them.

Polly of Pebbly Pit Lillian Elizabeth Roy 1900

Through the door which opened into her bed-chamber she saw the floor littered with boxes and papers, the new near-silk petticoat draping a chair, the new near-tailored suit which represented the "last cry" from the General Merchandise Store, the Parisian hat which the clairvoyant milliner had seen in a trance and trimmed from memory, but the lines of which suggested that the milliner's astral body had practised a deception and projected itself no further than 14th Street.

The Lady Doc Caroline Lockhart 1916

a quarter for a cheap sailor collar or a pair of near-silk stockings.

Cheerful—By Request Edna Ferber 1926