Satin
adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A cloth woven from silk, nylon or polyester with a glossy surface and a dull back. (The same weaving technique applied to cotton produces cloth termed sateen). countable, uncountable
"Ibn Batuta informs us that a rich silk texture made here was called Zaitûniya; and there can be little doubt that this is the real origin of our word Satin,—Zettani in mediæval Italian, Aceytuni in Spanish."
- 2 a smooth fabric of silk or rayon; has a glossy face and a dull back wordnet
- 3 Gin (the drink). countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable
"'This poor gal was robbed, barely left a stitch, that and the drink... mind, I likes a drop of satin – wot you'd call gin – myself. I'll say nothing against it. She ended thrown out of an upstairs winder.'"
- 1 To make (paper, silver, etc.) smooth and glossy like satin. transitive
- 1 Semigloss. not-comparable
"satin paint"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"She was wearing a gown of satin."
Etymology
From French satin, which is derived from "Zaitun", the Arabic name for the Chinese city of Quanzhou, itself derived from Arabic زَيْتُون (zaytūn, “Zayton; olive”), from phono-semantic matching from Chinese 刺桐 (MC tshjeH duwng, “coral tree”) in 刺桐城 (MC tshjeH duwng dzyeng, “coral tree town”), an old name for Quanzhou.