Velvet Meaning
/ˈvɛlvɪt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA closely woven fabric (originally of silk, now also of cotton or man-made fibres) with a thick short pile on one side.
nounVery fine fur, including the skin and fur on a deer's antlers.
Sentence Examples
This cloth feels like velvet.
Little babies' cheeks feel like velvet.
Her dear hand rested like warm velvet upon my lips.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The tailor chose soft ____ from the best French supplier for the queen's elegant evening gown.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The curtains in the theater were made of thick red ____, which felt very soft and luxurious to the touch today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 206–207:
"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."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſet pyll vpon it, the which is called Veluet, […]"
— 1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Of the Termes of Venery”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 244:
"Penmachno mill is situate where a stream has furrowed a deep channel, and velveted the rocks with the richest mosses […]."
— 1834, Edward Price, Norway. Views of Wild Scenery: and Journal, London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., Part I, p. 16:
"Last week the scaffolds were up in the hall once more. This time the back wall is to be velveted in absorbent fiber glass […]"
— 1963 September 6, “Childe Harold in New York”, in Time:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The tailor chose soft ____ from the best French supplier for the queen's elegant evening gown.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The curtains in the theater were made of thick red ____, which felt very soft and luxurious to the touch today.