Meanings
plural silkscreens
- A sheet of material (originally silk but now synthetic) with areas that are porous to ink and others that are non-porous to allow printing of images, such as on T-shirts.
present singular third person silkscreens · participle present silkscreening · participle past silkscreened · past silkscreened
- To use a silkscreen to apply an image.
A year ago, if anyone had told Toronto designer Kingi Carpenter she would soon be silkscreening a U. S. president onto dresses, hoodies and scarves, she would have laughed in their face.
2009 January 13, Andrea Gordon, “Buying into Obama”, in Toronto Star, archived from the original on 24 May 20101 more example
The wall text accompanying Warhol’s small canvas with 12 electric-blue crucifixes silkscreened on a black background suggests that the repetition of crosses mirrors his Campbell’s soup cans, with the religious icon serving as “a commodity to be bought and sold.”
2007 February 6, Martha Schwendener, “Believers and Doubters, Inspired by the Word”, in New York Times
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna print made using a stencil process in which an image or design is superimposed on a very fine mesh screen and printing ink is squeegeed onto the printing surface through the area of the screen that is not covered by the stencil
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
silkscreen. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/silkscreen
“silkscreen.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/silkscreen. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “silkscreen,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/silkscreen.
Source: silkscreen on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.