damask

plural damasks

1. countableuncountableAn ornate silk fabric originating from Damascus.

   True damasks are pure silk.

   3 more examples

   […]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.

   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

   Its curtains were of damask, with leafy wreaths and garlands, figured upon a gold and silver ground, and fringed along the edges with broideries of pearls, and it stood in a room hung with rows of the queen's devices in cut black velvet upon cloth of silver.

   1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 206

   Referring to the genealogy of the Dobie family, we find that it can be traced back to the sixteenth century, when the Dobies of Dobie's Lane were prominent shipbuilders in the seaport town of Leith, Scotland. Dr. Dobie [William Gowan Dobie, D.M.] was born in the ancient Scotch city of Dunfermline, where his father, William, and grandfather were both damask manufacturers, while his mother, Agnes, was a daughter of James Mathewson, who was one of the pioneer manufacturers of damask.

   1902, James Miller Guinn, Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California: Containing a History of Southern California from Its Earliest Settlement to the Opening Year of the Twentieth Century; Also Containing Biographies of Well-known Citizens of the Past and Present, Chapman Publishing Company, page 471

2. countableuncountableLinen so woven that a pattern is produced by the different directions of the thread, without contrast of colour.
3. countableuncountableA heavy woolen or worsted stuff with a pattern woven in the same way as the linen damask; made for furniture covering and hangings.

   1 more example

   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.

   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

4. countableuncountableDamascus steel.
5. countableuncountableThe peculiar markings or water of such steel.
6. countableuncountableA damask rose, Rosa × damascena.
7. countableuncountableA grayish-pink color, like that of the damask rose.

   Thursday. D. certainly improved. Better night. Slight tinge of damask revisiting cheek.

   1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

comparative more damask · superlative most damask

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

   But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, / Feed on her damask cheek

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   3 more examples

   They had a lurking suspicion even, that he died of secret love; though I must say there was a picture of him in the house with a damask nose, which concealment did not appear to have ever preyed upon.

   1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

   Hortense, with her rich chestnut locks so luxuriantly knotted, plaited, twisted, as if she did not know how to dispose of all their abundance, with her vermillion lips, damask cheek, and roguish laughing eye.

   a. 1856 (date written), Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in A[rthur] B[ell] Nicholls, editor, The Professor, a Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 187

   My cage has many rooms / Damask and dark / Nothing there sings, / Not even my lark.

   1973, Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

present singular third person damasks · participle present damasking · participle past damasked · past damasked

1. To decorate or weave in damascene patterns

   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.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 19

comparative more Damask · superlative most Damask

1. Relating to, or originating at, the city of Damascus.