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silkweed

[silk-weed]
noun
  1. any milkweed, the pods of which contain a silky down.
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Origin of silkweed

An Americanism dating back to 1775–85; silk + weed1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for silkweed

Historical Examples

  • Their lines were made of the tough, fibrous, silken bark of the variety of milkweed or silkweed, already mentioned.

    Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity

    Galen Clark

British Dictionary definitions for silkweed

silkweed

noun
  1. another name for milkweed (def. 1)
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Word Origin

C19: so called because the pods contain a silklike down
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