corn silk

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noun

the long, threadlike, silky styles on an ear of corn.

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Origin of corn silk

First recorded in 1850–55

Words nearby corn silk

corn rose, cornrow, corn salad, corn shock, corn shuck, corn silk, corn smut, corn snake, corn snow, corn stack, cornstalk

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use corn silk in a sentence

Poking out of the shiny gold pages is a “distinctive silk marker”—also gold—which “complements the color of the leather.”
Rand Paul’s Many Leather-Bound Books|Olivia Nuzzi|November 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sometimes I wear my silk pyjamas when I am going for a walk in the mornings, does that make me eccentric?
The Death of the English Eccentric|Tom Sykes|November 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
For the uninitiated, the film is set on a future Earth whose crops (save corn) have been wiped out by a mysterious blight.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks Down ‘Interstellar’: Black Holes, Time Dilations, and Massive Waves|Marlow Stern|November 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I certainly found it very helpful when I realized we were going to have to grow our own corn.
Christopher Nolan Uncut: On ‘Interstellar,’ Ben Affleck’s Batman, and the Future of Mankind|Marlow Stern|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST

That must have been some corn for her to remember it 50 years later!
Joan Rivers: The Playboy Bunnies Weren’t Sluts!|Patty Farmer|November 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Q was a Queen, who wore a silk slip; R was a Robber, and wanted a whip.
Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17)|Various
The man with the automobile, the corn-cure, and the baby grew to be legendary in the villages of Provence.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke
He urged the growing of mulberry trees and the propagation of silk worms, as being of more value than tobacco.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
I should judge that a peck of corn is about the average product of a day's work through all this region.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
She had been properly dressed for the occasion in black tulle and black silk tights.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin

British Dictionary definitions for corn silk

corn silk

noun

US and Canadian the silky tuft of styles and stigmas at the tip of an ear of maize, formerly used as a diuretic

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