Definition of "silk"

silk

/sɪlk/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural silks
1. (chiefly uncountable) A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).
2. A fine, soft cloth woven from silk fibers.
  Quotations
  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.
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, page 6
3. Anything which resembles silk, such as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize, or the seed covering of bombaxes.
  Quotations
  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.
  1963, Margery Allingham, “Dangerous Lady”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, page 36
4. The gown worn by a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel.
5. (colloquial) A Queen's Counsel, King's Counsel or Senior 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.
verb
third-person singular simple present silks, present participle silking, simple past and past participle silked
1. (transitive) To remove the silk from (corn).
  Quotations
  While we shucked and silked the corn, we talked, sang old nursery rhymes […]
  2013, Lynetra T. Griffin, From Whence We Came, page 17