German silver


noun
  1. any of various alloys of copper, zinc, and nickel, usually white and used for utensils, drawing instruments, etc.; nickel silver.

Origin of German silver

1
First recorded in 1820–30

Words Nearby German silver

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use German silver in a sentence

  • The principal use of zinc is as an alloy with other metals to form brass, bronze, German silver and bearing metals.

  • The commonest alloy containing nickel is German silver, although one of its most important alloys is found in nickel steel.

  • German-silver wire has a much greater resistance than copper wire of the same size and length.

    How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus | Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew) St. John
  • But nobody would understand nowadays what you meant by German-silver; it's perfectly gone out.

    The March Family Trilogy, Complete | William Dean Howells
  • He was never without an immense, knotted, hard-wood cane with a German-silver tip on its crooked handle.

    Whirligigs | O. Henry

British Dictionary definitions for German silver

German silver

noun
  1. another name for nickel silver

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012