velvet

Meanings

Noun

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

Verb

• To cover with velvet or with a covering of a similar texture.
• To coat raw meat in starch, then in oil, preparatory to frying.
• To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers.
• To soften; to mitigate.
• to retract.

Adjective

• Made of velvet.
• Soft and delicate, like velvet; velvety.
• peaceful, carried out without violence; especially as pertaining to the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia.

Origin

• From Middle English velvet, velwet, veluet, from Old Occitan veluet, from Late Latin villutittus, diminutive of villūtus, from Latin villus. Cognate with French velours.