chamois

plural chamoises · plural chamoix · alternative chamoix · alternative shamois · alternative shamoy

1. countableuncountableA short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.

   When my father returned from Milan, he found playing with me in the hall of our villa a child fairer than pictured cherub – a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks and whose form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hills.

   1831 October 31, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, chapter I, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 22

2. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableEllipsis of chamois leather (“soft pliable leather originally made from the skin of chamois (nowadays the hides of deer, sheep, and other species of goat are alternatively used)”).

   [H]e seldom donned his armour, substituted costly damask and silk for his war-worn shamoy doublet, and affected at his advanced time of life more gaiety of attire than his contemporaries remembered as distinguishing his early youth.

   1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter XVI, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 317

3. countableuncountableThe traditional colour of chamois leather.
4. countableuncountableAn absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.

   Mirrors can be cleaned with warm water and ammonia or vinegar and polished with a chamois.

   1984, Cruising World, page 158

   2 more examples

   I took them, breathed on them, polished them with a chamois and hung them on the chandelier.

   1926, Louise de Koven Bowen, Growing Up with a City, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 39

   Once your paint has been restored, drying your car with a chamois is just about all you have to do to restore the luster.

   1989, Popular Mechanics, page 146

5. countableuncountablecyclingA padded insert which protects the groin from the bicycle saddle.

1. not comparableChamois-colored.

present singular third person chamoises · participle present chamoising · participle past chamoised · past chamoised

1. transitiveTo clean with a chamois leather cloth.

   Synonyms: shammy