velvet
/ˈvɛlvɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.77 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "For the first time since her husband's death, she had thrown off her weeds, and put on attire more suited to the occasion. She was richly, yet plainly dressed, in a purple velvet, with a hood of white point lace. Even her silent handmaids were surprised out of their ordinary propriety by her appearance."
- "She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace,[…]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […] all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher."
- "His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſet pyll vpon it, the which is called Veluet, […]"
- "Penmachno mill is situate where a stream has furrowed a deep channel, and velveted the rocks with the richest mosses […]."
- "Last week the scaffolds were up in the hall once more. This time the back wall is to be velveted in absorbent fiber glass […]"
- "Blanching cut and specially marinated chicken in oil or water prior to stir-frying is a technique common to Chinese restaurant kitchens. The 20-second bath tenderizes the chicken remarkably, hence the process has been dubbed "velveting" in English. Velveted chicken is half-cooked, will not stick to the pan, and needs almost no oil when stir-fried."
Etymology
From Middle English velvet, velwet, veluet, from Old Occitan veluet, from Vulgar Latin *villutittus, diminutive of villūtus, from Latin villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”). Cognate with French velours.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂welh₁-, velvet, veluet, *villutittus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈvɛlvɪt/
- British English: /ˈvɛlvɪt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
velvets (plural)
velvets (present, singular)
velveting (participle, present)
velveted (participle, past)
velveted (past)
more velvet (comparative)
most velvet (superlative)