SILKEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does silken mean? 

• SILKEN (adjective)
  The adjective SILKEN has 1 sense:

1. having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light

  Familiarity information: SILKEN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SILKEN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light

Synonyms:

satiny; silken; silklike; silky; sleek; slick

Context example:

slick seals and otters

Similar:

bright (emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts)

 Context examples 

The river said, “Run first to the bride, and ask her for a silken cord to draw up the water.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

First at him who flaunts with my lady's silken frock.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The emperor lays on the table three fine silken threads of six inches long; one is blue, the other red, and the third green.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Who knows? you may have to sail with me for a time, he said, quite softly, with a silken threat that belied the softness, as they moved slowly to comply, and we might as well start with a friendly understanding.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A fraction of a second too long in the water and the fine and silken edge of the proper heat was lost, and Martin found time to marvel at the accuracy he developed—an automatic accuracy, founded upon criteria that were machine-like and unerring.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

To have surrendered to temptation; listened to passion; made no painful effort—no struggle;—but to have sunk down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flowers covering it; wakened in a southern clime, amongst the luxuries of a pleasure villa: to have been now living in France, Mr. Rochester's mistress; delirious with his love half my time—for he would—oh, yes, he would have loved me well for a while.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life, added to the active spirit of tenderness that animated both, it may be imagined that while during every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self-control, I was so guided by a silken cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The Tin Woodman had chopped a big pile of wood, and now he made a fire of it, and Oz held the bottom of the balloon over the fire so that the hot air that arose from it would be caught in the silken bag.

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

Sir Nigel, Sir Nigel! you owe me a return for this, and he touched his right arm, which was girt round just under the shoulder with a silken kerchief.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Chanticleer ran to the bride, and said, Bride, you must give me a silken cord, for then the river will give me water, and the water I will carry to Partlet, who lies on the mountain, and will be choked by a great nut.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)