silk

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).

   The thread made of silk was barely visible.

2. 2
   noun

   A fine, soft cloth woven from silk fibers.

   It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.

3. 3
   noun

   Anything which resembles silk, such as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize, or the seed covering of bombaxes.

   Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

4. 4
   verb

   To remove the silk from (corn).

   While we shucked and silked the corn, we talked, sang old nursery rhymes […]

5. 5
   noun

   a fabric made from the fine threads produced by certain insect larvae

6. 6
   noun

   animal fibers produced by silkworms and other larvae that spin cocoons and by most spiders

7. 7
   noun

   The gown worn by a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel.

8. 8
   noun

   A Queen's Counsel, King's Counsel or Senior Counsel.

Etymology

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.