velvety
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈvɛlvəti/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
[edit]velvety (comparative more velvety, superlative most velvety)
- (also figuratively) Like velvet; soft, smooth, soothing.
- The mouse was a warm, velvety weight in my hand.
- The crooner had a velvety voice that made the ladies swoon.
- 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Sounds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 124–125:
- In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke the tender limbs.
- 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
- "The humble dung-beetle was at least a fact. All this psychic stuff is not." "No doubt you have good grounds for your views," chirped the mischievous Millworthy, a mild youth with a velvety manner.
- 1918, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Woodlark”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, →OCLC, page 85:
- Through the velvety wind V-winged / To the nest's nook I balance and buoy / With a sweet joy of a sweet joy, / Sweet, of a sweet, of a sweet joy / Of a sweet—a sweet—sweet—joy.
- 1951, C. S. Lewis, chapter 11, in Prince Caspian, Collins, published 1998:
- As he came down the huge velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother’s arms and set him (right way up, too) on the ground.
- 1964, Elie Wiesel, The Town Beyond the Wall (1962), translated by Stephen Becker, New York: Atheneum, 1964, p. 104,
- Tangier was washed in a velvety bluish twilight.
- 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 144:
- By now it was dark, velvety dark with a moon, a darkness pinpricked by the lights from the landing place now drawing rapidly closer.
- 2017 December 7, Anthony Tommasini, “Review: Listening at the Met, After James Levine”, in New York Times[1]:
- In the demanding aria “Casta diva,” Ms. Meade sang Bellini’s ornately embellished phrases with velvety legato; climactic high points in the flowing melody soared over the orchestra, elegantly conducted by Joseph Colaneri.
Translations
[edit]like velvet
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