VELVET

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does velvet mean? 

• VELVET (noun)
  The noun VELVET has 1 sense:

1. a silky densely piled fabric with a plain back

  Familiarity information: VELVET used as a noun is very rare.

• VELVET (adjective)
  The adjective VELVET has 2 senses:

1. smooth and soft to sight or hearing or touch or taste

2. resembling velvet in having a smooth soft surface

  Familiarity information: VELVET used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VELVET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A silky densely piled fabric with a plain back

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("velvet" is a kind of...):

cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)

Derivation:

velvet (resembling velvet in having a smooth soft surface)

velvet (smooth and soft to sight or hearing or touch or taste)

velvety (resembling velvet in having a smooth soft surface)

• VELVET (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Smooth and soft to sight or hearing or touch or taste

Synonyms:

velvet; velvet-textured; velvety

Similar:

smooth (having a surface free from roughness or bumps or ridges or irregularities)

Derivation:

velvet (a silky densely piled fabric with a plain back)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Resembling velvet in having a smooth soft surface

Synonyms:

velvet; velvety

Similar:

soft (yielding readily to pressure or weight)

Derivation:

velvet (a silky densely piled fabric with a plain back)

 Context examples 

Three—a full piece of white Genoan velvet with twelve ells of purple silk.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The velvet band again covered the red mark.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And if I do— Her dear hand rested like warm velvet upon my lips. Not another word, Sir!

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In a wardrobe were many green dresses, made of silk and satin and velvet; and all of them fitted Dorothy exactly.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I caught glimpses of velvet chairs, a high white marble mantel-piece, and what seemed to be a suit of Japanese armour at one side of it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Its noise and outcry warned him of its presence, while he ran alone, velvet- footed, silently, a moving shadow among the trees after the manner of his father and mother before him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Traddles and I were separated at table, being billeted in two remote corners: he in the glare of a red velvet lady; I, in the gloom of Hamlet's aunt.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called “Little Red-Cap.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

An extract obtained from deer antler velvet.

(Cervus elaphus Horn Oil, NCI Thesaurus)

The first splendid velvet edge of youth and condition wore off, and they fought more cautiously and deliberately.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)