Silken

//ˈsɪlkən// adj, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Made of silk. not-comparable

    "a silken veil"

  2. 2
    Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly; Having a smooth, soft, or light texture. not-comparable

    "Come then youth, Beauty, and Blood, all ye soft powers, / Whose silken flatteryes swell a few fond houres."

  3. 3
    Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly; Having a smooth, soft, or flowing utterance; attractive or (typically derogatory) convincing through pleasing expression. figuratively, not-comparable

    "Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, / Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, / Figures pedantical; these summer-flies / Have blown me full of maggot ostentation:"

  4. 4
    Dressed in silk. not-comparable

    "[S]hall a beardless boy, / A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […]?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light; being of a smooth, soft and lustrous quality, resembling silk wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To render silken or silklike. transitive

    "silkening body lotion"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk + -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk + -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).

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