velvet

English Online Dictionary. What means velvet‎? What does velvet mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English velvet, velwet, veluet, from Old Occitan veluet, from Late Latin villutittus, diminutive of villūtus, from Latin villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”). Cognate with French velours.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛlvɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛlvɪt/

Noun

velvet (countable and uncountable, plural velvets)

1. A closely woven fabric (originally of silk, now also of cotton or man-made fibres) with a thick short pile on one side.
2. Very fine fur, including the skin and fur on a deer's antlers.
3. (rare, countable) A female chinchilla; a sow.
4. (slang, uncountable) The drug dextromethorphan.
5. (slang, uncountable) Money acquired by gambling.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

velvet (third-person singular simple present velvets, present participle velveting, simple past and past participle velveted)

1. To cover with velvet or with a covering of a similar texture.
2. (cooking) To coat raw meat in starch, then in oil, preparatory to frying.
3. To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers.
   • 2014, "Top genetic selection produces biggest antlers," NZFarmer.co.nz, 12 July, 2014, [2]

     Reacting to painkillers when velveted, Sovereign II was too sick to grow antlers last year, but has since recovered.

4. (figurative, transitive) To soften; to mitigate.
5. (of a cat's claws) to retract.

Translations

Adjective

velvet (comparative more velvet, superlative most velvet)

1. Made of velvet.
2. Soft and delicate, like velvet; velvety.
3. (politics) Peaceful; carried out without violence; especially as pertaining to the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia.
   • 2011, Javad Etaat quoted in Hooman Majd, The Ayatollahs' Democracy: An Iranian Challenge, page 39:

     “I was once invited to give a speech about the attempt to topple Iran's political system through a ‘velvet revolution,’ ” says Etaat in the debate, “but we all know that ‘velvet revolutions’ always occur in dictatorships.”

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “velvet”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• velwet, veluet, welwet, velvette, felwet

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Occitan veluet, from Late Latin villutittus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛlˈvɛt/, /vɛlˈwɛt/

Noun

velvet (plural veluettes)

1. velvet (fine tufted fabric)
2. Clothes made of velvet.

Descendants

• English: velvet
• Scots: velvet

References

• “velvet, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-5.