Silk

//sɪlk// name, noun, verb, slang

name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider). uncountable

    "The thread made of silk was barely visible."

  2. 2
    a fabric made from the fine threads produced by certain insect larvae wordnet
  3. 3
    A fine, soft cloth woven from silk fibers. countable, uncountable

    "It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side."

  4. 4
    animal fibers produced by silkworms and other larvae that spin cocoons and by most spiders wordnet
  5. 5
    Anything which resembles silk, such as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize, or the seed covering of bombaxes. countable, uncountable

    "Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    The gown worn by a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel. countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    A Queen's Counsel, King's Counsel or Senior Counsel. colloquial, countable, uncountable
  3. 8
    A pair of long silk sheets suspended in the air on which a performer performs tricks. countable, in-plural, uncountable
  4. 9
    The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner. countable, plural-normally, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To remove the silk from (corn). transitive

    "While we shucked and silked the corn, we talked, sang old nursery rhymes […]"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname originating as an occupation for a seller of silk.

Synonyms

All synonyms
agalabasterattorney generalbilliard tableblubberbowling alley

Example

More examples

"This beautiful dress is made of silk."

Etymology

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.

Related phrases

Sri Lankan tussar silk mothahimsa silkcactus silkcorn silkcrow-silkfart through silkfloss silkfloss-silkflox silkglass silkgolden silk orb-weaverhit the silk

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.