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silver plate
silver platenounsilver tableware.
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silver-plate
silver-plateverb (used with object)to coat (base metal) with silver, especially by electroplating.
silver plate
1 Americannoun
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silver tableware.
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a coating of silver, especially one electroplated on base metal.
verb (used with object)
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silver-plates,
present (3rd person singular)
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silver-plated,
past participle, past
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silver-plating
present participle
noun
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a thin layer of silver deposited on a base metal
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articles, esp tableware, made of silver plate
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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silver-platesimple
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silver-platessimple
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have silver-platedperfect
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has silver-platedperfect
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am silver-platingprogressive
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are silver-platingprogressive
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is silver-platingprogressive
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have been silver-platingperfect progressive
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has been silver-platingperfect progressive
Past
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silver-platedsimple
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had silver-platedperfect
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was silver-platingprogressive
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were silver-platingprogressive
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had been silver-platingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of silver plate
First recorded in 1520–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Pujols and Molina were given gifts from the team, including a set of golf clubs, a silver plate and one-of-a-kind artist drawings of each player.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 2, 2022
During arti, you stood in front of the gods and offered them light, clutching a silver plate holding ghee-drenched cotton ball flames and marigolds.
From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2022
That would make the silver plate a pretty specific allegory for the Eastern Roman emperor as God’s designated champion on earth, like David, the victorious underdog in the struggle against the Philistine giant.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2022
"Our freedom will not be granted to us on a silver plate," said Ms Chimbiri.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2020
The silver plate they gave her twinkled like a starburst in a galaxy of flashing cameras.
From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
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There would be mismatched antique silver-plate utensils in the kitchen drawers, and the beds would be dressed in neutral-color linens from West Elm and Pine Cone Hill.
From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2016
Patinated brass handles give Nalata Nalata’s Ihada silver-plate flatware a graceful antique look; $230 for a five-piece set.
From Architectural Digest ● Dec. 5, 2014
Which explains how the Mayfair peeress who asked me for cocktails one day has a villa packed with Vieux Paris silver-plate and Louis XVI armchairs covered in needlepoint scenes from La Fontaine’s “Fables.”
From New York Times ● May 20, 2011
Design becomes art in Lino Sabattini's silver-plate tea and coffee service and Ernest Race's shaped steel-rod chair.
From Time Magazine Archive
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They said there’d been two white twins from America riding ’round Chatham on two white stallions whilst toting two of the fanciest pearl-handle, silver-plate pistols just like the one the Preacher said he found.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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Tell me of all the riches and jewels—the gold and silver-plates you eat from, the jewelry you have to wear, the rich silks—all of it!
From Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies The Missing Pearl Necklace by Alice B. Emerson
“People my age are taking an interest in having heirlooms and traditional items,” Van Hulsen says as she points to a silver-plated trinket tray that holds her jewelry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
Items that are silver-plated can sometimes be marked as well, although their value is generally have much lower.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 31, 2025
Around 400 items, including silver-plated menorahs, hanukkiahs, tableware and daily use items were uncovered in the city of Lodz last month during the renovation of a house and yard.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 11, 2023
He finished with modern glassware and Elsie Green’s overdyed napkin, as well as vintage silver-plated flatware and a red Bakelite knife.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2022
The starter’s silver-plated gong rang, a sprocket turned, a valve opened, and the engine whooshed to life on exquisitely machined shafts and bearings.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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So in Nashville, Biochemist Paul F. Hahn is trying to fool the body by silver-plating his radio-gold.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Later they began to do the same thing with silver, silver-plating especially the ornaments of horses and carriages.
From Characters and events of Roman History by Frances Lance Ferrero
There's some fine engraving on the silver-plating, noble sentiment, deftly expressed, and done in the engraver's best style.
From Quiet Talks on John's Gospel by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon
Here—a man selling silvering-liquor, to be applied to vulgar yellow spoons, only a franc a bottle, and a whole set turned into purest silver-plating, plating that will not wear out through all your lives.
From In Troubadour-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
To explain more clearly, it was the practice of most silver platers to use an alloy for silver-plating.
From American Hand Book of the Daguerreotype by S. D. (Samuel Dwight) Humphrey
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.