noun
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silk produced by wild silkworms
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a fabric made from this, or from short fibres of silk designed to imitate it
Etymology
Origin of wild silk
An Americanism dating back to 1790–1800
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.
Behind them the river pulsed through the darkness, shimmering like wild silk.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
The name is also applied to a variety of dress goods woven with a wild silk warp and a fine worsted weft.
From Textiles For Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools; Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades by Dooley, William H. (William Henry)
Still, the wild silk made by the moths of India is not carefully grown.
From The Story of Silk by Price, Hattie Longstreet
Yet the older modern accounts speak only of the wild silk of Shan-tung.
From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 by Yule, Henry
M. Randot has estimated the annual crop of wild silk cocoons in Szechwan at 10,180,000 pounds, although in the opinion of Alexander Hosie much of this may come from Kweichow.
From Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan by King, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
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.
