damask

See also: Damask

English

WOTD – 15 January 2010
Damask, late 15th to early 16th century

Etymology

From Middle English damaske, from Medieval Latin damascus, named after the city Damascus, where the fabric was originally made.

Pronunciation

  • (UK, General American) IPA(key): /ˈdæm.əsk/
    • (file)

Noun

damask (countable and uncountable, plural damasks)

  1. An ornate silk fabric originating from Damascus.
    True damasks are pure silk.
    • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, [], published 1837, →OCLC:
      [] but what struck Tom's fancy most was a strange, grim-looking, high backed chair, carved in the most fantastic manner, with a flowered damask cushion, and the round knobs at the bottom of the legs carefully tied up in red cloth, as if it had got the gout in its toes.
  2. Linen so woven that a pattern is produced by the different directions of the thread, without contrast of colour.
  3. A heavy woolen or worsted stuff with a pattern woven in the same way as the linen damask; made for furniture covering and hangings.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., [], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
      Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.
  4. Damascus steel.
  5. The peculiar markings or water of such steel.
  6. A damask rose, Rosa × damascena.
  7. A grayish-pink color, like that of the damask rose.
    damask:  

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

damask (comparative more damask, superlative most damask)

  1. Of a grayish-pink color, like that of the damask rose.

Translations

Verb

damask (third-person singular simple present damasks, present participle damasking, simple past and past participle damasked)

  1. To decorate or weave in damascene patterns
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Francesca Carrara. [], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, [], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 19:
      Madame de Mercœur had herself arranged her dress, which was splendid white silk, damasked with silver flowers; but it was with much internal misgiving that she put on the graceful cap and plume.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Anagrams

Danish

Etymology

From Italian damasco (damask).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /damask/, [ˈd̥amasɡ̊]

Noun

damask n (singular definite damasket, not used in plural form)

  1. damask

Further reading

Maltese

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian damasco.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /daˈmask/

Noun

damask m

  1. damask
  2. Damascus steel

Swedish

Noun

damask c

  1. spat, gaiter

Declension

Declension of damask 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative damask damasken damasker damaskerna
Genitive damasks damaskens damaskers damaskernas
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