silver

plural silvers

1. uncountableA lustrous, white, metallic element, atomic number 47, atomic weight 107.87, symbol Ag.

   Synonyms: ☽, ☾, argyr-

2. collectivecountableuncountableCoins made from silver or any similar white metal.

   […] maybe two or three twenties, a dozen tens, and twenty or thirty fins. The rest is all aces and silver.

   1990, David F. Friedman, Don DeNevi, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-film King, page 136

   Synonyms: argyr-

3. collectivecountableuncountableCutlery and other eating utensils, whether silver or made from some other white metal.

   Synonyms: silverware

4. collectivecountableuncountableAny items made from silver or any other white metal.
5. uncountableA shiny gray color.

   I'll need some mayonnaise and a silver tin of sardines, a banana.

   2017, Sam Shepard, chapter 27, in Spy of the First Person, →ISBN, page 62

6. countableA silver medal.
7. countableuncountableAnything resembling silver; something shiny and white.

   1 more example

   And next morning they found him dead, with his neck broken, in the bottom of the stone pit, with his beautiful clothes a little bloody, and foul and stained with the duckweed from the pond. But his face was a face of such happiness that, had you seen it, you would have understood indeed how that he had died happy, never knowing that cool and streaming silver for the duckweed in the pond.

   1909 April 10, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “[The Time Machine and Other Stories]. The Beautiful Suit.”, in The Short Stories of H. G. Wells, London: Ernest Benn Limited […], published September 1927, →OCLC, pages 162–163

comparative more silver · superlative most silver

1. Made from silver.

   2 more examples

   He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw, peeping around the massive silver epergne that almost obscured him from her view, that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

   1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax

   Synonyms: silvern

2. Made from another white metal.
3. Having a color like silver: a shiny gray.

   Synonyms: silvery

4. Denoting the twenty-fifth anniversary, especially of a wedding.

   Mostly, these have been relationships of 10 or less years. However, one respondent has celebrated her silver wedding anniversary.

   1994, “Mate matching” in Accent on Living, v 38, n 4 (Spring), p 52

5. Premium, but inferior to gold.
6. Pertaining or relating to elderly persons.
7. Having the clear, musical tone of silver; soft and clear in sound.

   a silver-voiced young girl

present singular third person silvers · participle present silvering · participle past silvered · past silvered

1. To acquire a silvery colour.

   Presently all the eastern sky began to silver and shine, and objects before invisible in the west—chiefly the tall towers on Mount Zion—emerged as from a shadowy depth, [...]

   1880 November 12, Lew[is] Wallace, chapter IV, in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, book sixth, page 416

   1 more example

   But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat's-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Silverside”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 281

2. To cover with silver, or with a silvery metal.

   to silver a pin; to silver a glass mirror plate with an amalgam of tin and mercury

   1 more example

   The first attempts to silver the five-foot were made with the process already mentioned, great care being taken to filter all the solutions before use; but the film was always full of pinholes through particles lying on the surface, although the mirror was kept in motion during the whole time.

   1892, Royal Astronomical Society, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, volumes 50-51, Blackwell Scientific, page 162

3. To polish like silver; to impart a brightness to, like that of silver.

   For here retir'd the ſinking billows ſleep, / And ſmiling calmneſs ſilver'd o'er the deep.

   1725, Homer, “Book X”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 17, lines 107–108

4. To make hoary, or white, like silver.

   Remote from cities liv'd a Swain, / Unvex'd with all the cares of gain, / His head was ſilver'd o'er with age, / And long experience made him ſage; [...]

   1727, [John] Gay, “Introduction to the Fables. The Shepherd and the Philosopher.”, in Fables, 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] J[acob] Tonson and J. Watts, published 1728, →OCLC

1. An English surname originating as an occupation for a silversmith or a rich man, or for someone having silvery gray hair or living by a silvery brook.
2. A surname from German.
3. A unisex given name from English from the metal, or transferred from the surname.

   " - - - I'll level with you, Mr. Cummings." "Silver", he corrected. "Sounds like the Lone Ranger's horse," she said.

   1993, Ed McBain, Mischief, William Morrow and Co., →ISBN, page 67

   1 more example

   "Silver here, my darling wife, insists on the services of a particular yacht upholsterer. - - - " From the way he said the woman's metal name Quayle thought it was changed from a stodgier "Alice" or "Bernice".

   1993, Annie Proulx, Shipping News, Fourth Estate, →ISBN, page 121

4. A place name:
   1. A community in the Rural Municipality of Armstrong, Manitoba, Canada, named after N. T. Silver.
   2. A township in Cherokee County, Iowa, United States.
   3. A township in Carlton County, Minnesota, United States, named after Silver Creek.
   4. An unincorporated community in Coke County, Texas, United States.