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SILVERY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having the white lustrous sheen of silver
Example:
repeated scrubbings have given the wood a silvery sheen
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
bright (emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts)
Derivation:
silver (a soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal; occurs in argentite and in free form; used in coins and jewelry and tableware and photography)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Resembling or reminiscent of silver
Example:
singing in her silvery tones
Synonyms:
silvern; silvery
Classified under:
Similar:
euphonious; euphonous (having a pleasant sound)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Of lustrous grey; covered with or tinged with the color of silver
Example:
silvery hair
Synonyms:
argent; silver; silverish; silvery
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
achromatic; neutral (having no hue)
Derivation:
silver (a light shade of grey)
Context examples:
The western end was already steeped in moonshine; the rest, and the block house itself, still lay in a black shadow chequered with long silvery streaks of light.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element; brittle at low temperatures but liquid above room temperature; occurs in trace amounts in bauxite and zinc ores.
(Gallium, NCI Thesaurus)
Having removed this impediment, and lifted certain silvery envelopes of tissue paper, she merely exclaimed—"Oh ciel! Que c'est beau!" and then remained absorbed in ecstatic contemplation.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But the king made the most skilful workmen in his kingdom weave the three dresses: one golden, like the sun; another silvery, like the moon; and a third sparkling, like the stars: and his hunters were told to hunt out all the beasts in his kingdom, and to take the finest fur out of their skins: and thus a mantle of a thousand furs was made.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
But they were both as grave and steady as the sea itself, then lying beneath a dark sky, waveless—yet with a heavy roll upon it, as if it breathed in its rest—and touched, on the horizon, with a strip of silvery light from the unseen sun.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
On December 30, your ruler Mercury will receive a silvery, electric, and happy vibration from Uranus, and by then, Mercury will have moved into your financial eighth house.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
"Of course I am!" cried Meg, smoothing the silvery folds of her first silk dress, for Mr. Laurence had insisted on giving it.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He saw the silent circle, with gleaming eyes, lolling tongues, and silvery breaths drifting upward, closing in upon him as he had seen similar circles close in upon beaten antagonists in the past.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
In the misty, silvery night I could see no sign of any living thing.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I looked up; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the Spy-glass, and soon after I saw something broad and silvery moving low down behind the trees, and knew the moon had risen.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
