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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)
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:
Like many others, he was at the family-run gold dealership in London to sell some precious metal - in his case a silver plate which had been "lying around the house".
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
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
As she got out of the car, the silver plate slid from her lap and rang like a dying bell against the asphalt.
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 Emerson, Alice B.
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
They came in fluorescent orange gabardine and shaggy, silvery faux fur, but also denim that itself had been treated as a precious fiber, sourced from original machines in Japan with silver-plated hardware.
From New York Times ● Jul. 10, 2021
Alex & Ani’s expandable wire matte gold or silver-plated bangles were inspired by Orange County’s ocean and palm trees and, in the distance, the San Jacinto Mountains.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2020
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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The art of silver-plating was invented at Sheffield by Thomas Bolsover, an ingenious mechanic, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and extensively applied by Mr. Joseph Hancock.
From Rides on Railways by Sidney, Samuel
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 Humphrey, S. D. (Samuel Dwight)
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 Ferrero, Frances Lance
For silver-plating the solution consists of the double cyanide of silver and potash, and may be used either hot or cold.
From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various
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.