Word Study
silken
CIDE DICTIONARY
silken, a. [AS. seolcen, seolocen.].
- Of or pertaining to silk; made of, or resembling, silk; as, silken cloth; a silken veil. [1913 Webster]
- Fig.: Soft; delicate; tender; smooth; as, silken language. Shak. [1913 Webster]
- Dressed in silk. Shak. [1913 Webster]
silken, v. t.
To render silken or silklike. Dyer. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
silken, adj.
1 made of silk.
2 wearing silk.
3 soft or lustrous as silk.
4 (of a person's manner etc.) suave or insinuating.
1 made of silk.
2 wearing silk.
3 soft or lustrous as silk.
4 (of a person's manner etc.) suave or insinuating.
Etymology
OE seolcen (as SILK)
THESAURUS
silken
buffed, burnished, cottony, deferential, disarming, finished, furbished, glace, glassy, glazed, gleaming, glossy, insinuating, insinuative, lacquered, plush, plushy, polished, rubbed, saccharine, satinlike, satiny, sericeous, shellacked, shiny, silklike, silky, sleek, slick, soft as silk, varnished, velutinous, velvetlike, velvetyROGET THESAURUS
silken
Smoothness
N smoothness, polish, gloss, lubricity, lubrication, down, velvet, velure, silk, satin, velveteen, velour, velours, velumen, glass, ice, slide, bowling green, asphalt, wood pavement, flagstone, flags, roller, steam roller, lawn roller, rolling pin, rolling mill, sand paper, emery paper, emery cloth, sander, flat iron, sad iron, burnisher, turpentine and beeswax, polish, shoe polish, lapidary, lapidary, lapidarian, smooth, polished, leiodermatous, slick, velutinous, even, level, plane, sleek, glossy, silken, silky, lanate, downy, velvety, glabrous, slippery, glassy, lubricous, oily, soft, unwrinkled, smooth as glass, smooth as ice, smooth as monumental alabaster, smooth as velvet, smooth as oil, slippery as an eel, woolly, smooth as silk, slippery as coonshit on a pump handle, slippery as a greased pig.For further exploring for "silken" in Webster Dictionary Online