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  • silver plate
    silver plate
    noun
    silver tableware.
  • silver-plate
    silver-plate
    verb (used with object)
    to coat (base metal) with silver, especially by electroplating.

silver plate

1 American  

noun

  1. silver tableware.

  2. a coating of silver, especially one electroplated on base metal.


silver-plate 2 American  
[sil-ver-pleyt] / ˈsɪl vərˈpleɪt /

verb (used with object)

  • silver-plates,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • silver-plated,
    past participle,  past
  • silver-plating
    present participle
  1. to coat (base metal) with silver, especially by electroplating.


silver plate British  

noun

  1. a thin layer of silver deposited on a base metal

  2. articles, esp tableware, made of silver plate

"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

verb

  1. (tr) to coat (a metal, object, etc) with silver, as by electroplating

"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

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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:

“Oh, ‘we’ve lost this giant silver plate in this huge special box.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 19, 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

They'd brought fine armor up from the Twins, shining silver plate with enameled blue chasings.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

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

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

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 Alice B. Emerson

Items that are silver-plated can sometimes be marked as well, although their value is generally have much lower.

From MarketWatch Dec. 31, 2025

It was a daguerreotype, an image imprinted on a sheet of silver-plated copper coated in light-sensitive chemicals.

From Seattle Times Jan. 22, 2024

About 90 minutes south of the SK factory, three workers heaved silver-plated lithium-ion battery modules onto a conveyor belt.

From Washington Post Apr. 17, 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

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

So in Nashville, Biochemist Paul F. Hahn is trying to fool the body by silver-plating his radio-gold.

From Time Magazine Archive

Here—a man selling silvering-liquor, to be applied to vulgar yellow spoons, only a franc a bottle, and a whole set turned into purest silver-plating, plating that will not wear out through all your lives.

From In Troubadour-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

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 Frances Lance Ferrero

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 S. D. (Samuel Dwight) Humphrey

There's some fine engraving on the silver-plating, noble sentiment, deftly expressed, and done in the engraver's best style.

From Quiet Talks on John's Gospel by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon

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