Meaning
5 senses(not comparable)Made of silk.
a silken veil
seiden
шёлковыйšólkovyj
Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly
(not comparable)Having a smooth, soft, or light texture.
having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light; being of a smooth, soft and lustrous quality, resembling silk
(not comparable)Suave.
(figuratively, not comparable)Having a smooth, soft, or flowing utterance; attractive or (typically derogatory) convincing through pleasing expression.
(not comparable)Dressed in silk.
Examples
4 sentencesModeration is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.
He laughed, and his laughter was like the purr of a sword sliding from a silken sheath.
deEr lachte, und sein Gelächter glich dem Schnurren eines Schwertes, das aus einer seidenen Scheide gleitet. — Yorwba · CC BY 2.0 FR
This silken vest here, green like the sea, reminds us that we spent three days under the ocean.
Her dainty feet were sandal-clad, while her head remained bare of covering other than her silken tresses.
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”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”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.