silk

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 zilkaĩ), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 (sī, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric.

• enPR: sĭlk, IPA^(key): /sɪlk/

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• Rhymes: -ɪlk

silk (countable and uncountable, plural silks)

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

   The thread made of silk was barely visible.

2. A fine, soft cloth woven from silk fibers.
   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     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. Anything which resembles silk, such as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize, or the seed covering of bombaxes.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess‎:

     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. The gown worn by a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel.
5. (colloquial) A Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel.
6. (circus arts, in the plural) A pair of long silk sheets suspended in the air on which a performer performs tricks.
7. (horse racing, usually in the plural) The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner.

silk (third-person singular simple present silks, present participle silking, simple past and past participle silked)

1. (transitive) To remove the silk from (corn).
   • 2013, Lynetra T. Griffin, From Whence We Came (page 17)

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

• sericin

• Kils, Lisk, ilks, skil