silk

[ silk ]

noun

1. the soft, lustrous fiber obtained as a filament from the cocoon of the silkworm.
2. thread made from this fiber.
3. cloth made from this fiber.
4. a garment of this cloth.
5. a gown of such material worn distinctively by a King's or Queen's Counsel at the English bar.
6. silks, the blouse and peaked cap, considered together, worn by a jockey or sulky driver in a race.
7. Informal. a parachute, especially one opened aloft.
8. any fiber or filamentous matter resembling silk, as a filament produced by certain spiders, the thread of a mollusk, or the like.
9. the hairlike styles on an ear of corn.
10. British Informal.
    1. a King's or Queen's Counsel.
    2. any barrister of high rank.

adjective

1. made of silk.
2. resembling silk; silky.
3. of or relating to silk.

verb (used without object)

1. (of corn) to be in the course of developing silk.

silk

/ sɪlk /

noun

1. the very fine soft lustrous fibre produced by a silkworm to make its cocoon
2. 1. thread or fabric made from this fibre
   2. ( as modifier )

      a silk dress

3. a garment made of this
4. a very fine fibre produced by a spider to build its web, nest, or cocoon
5. the tuft of long fine styles on an ear of maize
6. 1. the gown worn by a Queen's (or King's) Counsel
   2. a Queen's (or King's) Counsel
   3. take silk to become a Queen's (or King's) Counsel

verb

1. intr (of maize) to develop long hairlike styles

silk

/ sĭlk /

1. A fiber produced by silkworms to form cocoons. Silk is strong, flexible, and fibrous, and is essentially a long continuous strand of protein. It is widely used to make thread and fabric.
2. A substance similar to the silk of the silkworm but produced by other insect larvae or by spiders to spin webs.

Derived Forms

• ˈsilkˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• silklike adjective
• half-silk adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of silk¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun selk, seolk, solk, Old English sioloc, seol(o)c (cognate with Old Norse silki, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish silke, but not found in other Germanic languages), by uncertain transmission from Latin sērica, noun use of neuter plural adjective sēricus, or from Greek sērikón “silk,” noun use of neuter of sērikós “silken,” literally, “Chinese,” derivative of Latin Sēres, Greek Sêres “the Chinese”; Germanic, Slavic ( Old Church Slavonic shelkŭ, Russian shëlk ) and Baltic ( Lithuanian šilkai ) all show unexplained change of r to l ); seric-

Word History and Origins

Origin of silk¹

Old English sioluc; compare Old Norse silki, Greek sērikon, Korean sir; all ultimately from Chinese ssǔ silk

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. hit the silk, Slang. to parachute from an aircraft; bail out.
2. take silk, British. to become a Queen's or King's Counsel.

More idioms and phrases containing silk

see can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear ; smooth as silk .

Example Sentences

They’re actually the caterpillars of the domestic silk moth, Bombyx mori.

From Science News For Students

They began the process the same way, by removing sericin from silk fibers.

From Science News For Students

Doctors like silk for a variety of reasons, says David Kaplan.

From Science News For Students

All that water adds a lot of weight and volume to the silk materials as they’re stored.

From Science News For Students

The type of silk that’s most useful to people comes from what are often called silkworms.

From Science News For Students

Poking out of the shiny gold pages is a “distinctive silk marker”—also gold—which “complements the color of the leather.”

From The Daily Beast

Sometimes I wear my silk pyjamas when I am going for a walk in the mornings, does that make me eccentric?

From The Daily Beast

Behind their silk hats loom shadows of their immigrant forbears.

From The Daily Beast

Waving a silk cloth, he declared, “Gentlemen, I will have this land just as surely as I now have this handkerchief.”

From The Daily Beast

Undercover detective Gustav Frank sold Mandelbaum several bolts of stolen silk that had been secretly marked.

From The Daily Beast

Q was a Queen, who wore a silk slip; R was a Robber, and wanted a whip.

From Project Gutenberg

He urged the growing of mulberry trees and the propagation of silk worms, as being of more value than tobacco.

From Project Gutenberg

She had been properly dressed for the occasion in black tulle and black silk tights.

From Project Gutenberg

A chair covered with red silk, borne on the shoulders of sixteen chair-men, passed up to the temple.

From Project Gutenberg

Instead of a cloth, on each table was a sheet of fine glazed paper which had the appearance of oiled silk.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• fiber
• taffeta
• thread
• tulle