Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
silken. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
silken, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
silken in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
silken you have here. The definition of the word
silken will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
silken, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk + -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
silken (not comparable)
- Made of silk.
a silken veil
- Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly
- Having a smooth, soft, or light texture.
1646, Richard Crashaw, “Vpon Mr. Staninough’s Death”, in Steps to the Temple: Sacred Poems, with Other Delights of the Muses, London: Humphrey Moseley, page 40:Come then youth, Beauty, and Blood, all ye soft powers, / Whose silken flatteryes swell a few fond houres.
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Of the Pernicious Effects which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: J Johnson, , published 1792, →OCLC, page 322:[L]ove is not to be bought, in any ſenſe of the vvords, its ſilken vvings are inſtantly ſhrivelled up vvhen any thing beſide a return in kind is ſought.
1854 September – 1855 January, [Elizabeth Gaskell], chapter I, in North and South. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1855, →OCLC:[…] in spite of the buzz in the next room, Edith had rolled herself up into a soft ball of muslin and ribbon, and silken curls, and gone off into a peaceful little after-dinner nap.
- (figuratively, of speech or singing) Having a smooth, soft, or flowing utterance; attractive or (typically derogatory) convincing through pleasing expression.
c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, / Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, / Figures pedantical; these summer-flies / Have blown me full of maggot ostentation:
- Dressed in silk.
c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :[S]hall a beardless boy, / A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […] ?
c. 1593–1597, J[ohn] Donne, “Satyre I”, in Poems, with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: M F for Iohn Marriot, , published 1633, →OCLC, page 327:Yet though he cannot skip forth now to greet / Every fine silken painted foole we meet, / He then to him with amorous smiles allures,
- 1724, Aaron Hill, The Plain Dealer, London: S. Richardson & A. Wilde, 1730, Volume 2, No. 81, 28 December, 1724, p. 197:
- Last Saturday was three Weeks, at Two, in the Afternoon, I sent out my Servant, to watch a Couple of these Silken Strollers, and keep, if possible, within Ken of them.
1968, Jan Morris, chapter 10, in Pax Britannica: The Climax of Empire, London: Faber & Faber, published 2010, page 200:[…] the Viceroy moved magnificently through India, resplendent with all the colour and dash of the vast Empire at his feet, with his superb bodyguard jangling scarlet beside his carriage, silken Indian princes bowing at his carpet, generals quivering at the salute and ceremonial salutes of thirty-one guns […]
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
silken (third-person singular simple present silkens, present participle silkening, simple past and past participle silkened)
- (transitive) To render silken or silklike.
- silkening body lotion
- 1757, John Dyer, The Fleece, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Book I, lines 492-494, p. 30,
- Or, if your sheep are of Silurian breed,
- Nightly to house them dry on fern or straw,
- Silk’ning their fleeces.
1987, Derek Walcott, “The Light of the World”, in The Arkansas Testament, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 48:[…] these lights silkened her black skin:
Anagrams
Middle English
Adjective
silken
- Alternative form of selken
Norwegian Bokmål
Noun
silken m
- definite singular of silke
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
silken m
- definite singular of silke