silks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of silk.

   Merchants carried bolts of patterned silks along the trade routes between East and West.

   The museum displayed embroidered silks from several dynasties side by side.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of silk. The raw fiber is a mass noun and seldom takes it, but the cloth does: silks are kinds or lengths of fabric. The plural also counts the silky threads on an ear of maize, the gown of a senior barrister, and, colloquially, the counsel who wears it. Aerial performers' paired hanging sheets go by the plural name too.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of silk.

   The maize silks earlier than usual when the spring stays mild.

   Whenever a field silks, the farmer watches closely for pests on the tassels.

   Note

   A kitchen and field verb. Someone silks corn by pulling the fine threads from the ear, so it normally takes an object: she husks and silks the corn. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, and since those maize threads are themselves called silks, the grammar of the sentence is what tells the verb from the noun.

   She husks and silks each ear before it goes into the pot.

   He silks the corn while the water comes to a boil.

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