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)
The leaves are large oval ones, each about 7 inches in length; they have been sewn together with wild silk carefully knotted, exactly as is the practice of the common Tailor-bird.
From The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 by Hume, Allan Octavian
Richard places the export of raw wild silk from the whole of China proper, in 1904, at 4,400,000 pounds.
From Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan by King, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
Another suggestion is that the word is a corruption of pun-shih, a native or wild silk.
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)
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.
