velvety

English

Etymology

From velvet +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛlvəti/

Adjective

velvety (comparative more velvety, superlative most velvety)

1. (also figuratively) Like velvet; soft, smooth, soothing.

   The mouse was a warm, velvety weight in my hand.

   The crooner had a velvety voice that made the ladies swoon.

   • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Sounds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 124–125:

     In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke the tender limbs.

   • 1918, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Woodlark”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, →OCLC, page 85:

     Through the velvety wind V-winged / To the nest's nook I balance and buoy / With a sweet joy of a sweet joy, / Sweet, of a sweet, of a sweet joy / Of a sweet—a sweet—sweet—joy.

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, Collins, 1998, Chapter 11,

     As he came down the huge velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother’s arms and set him (right way up, too) on the ground.

   • 1964, Elie Wiesel, The Town Beyond the Wall (1962), translated by Stephen Becker, New York: Atheneum, 1964, p. 104,

     Tangier was washed in a velvety bluish twilight.

Translations

like velvet

• Catalan: vellutat
• German: samtig (de), samtweich (de), samtartig
• Hungarian: bársonyos (hu)
• Italian: vellutato (it)
• Korean: 벨벳같은 (belbetgateun)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: aveludado, veludíneo m, velutíneo m, veludoso m
• Romanian: catifelat (ro)
• Russian: бархати́стый (ru) (barxatístyj)
• Spanish: aterciopelado (es), terciopelado
• Welsh: melfedaidd (cy)