English

Adjective

velvety ‎(comparative more velvety, superlative most velvety)

1. Like velvet (but not velvet); soft, smooth, soothing. Not necessarily restricted to the sense of touch.
   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1910, Chapter 4, p. 150,

     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" (fragment) in Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, edited by Robert Bridges, London: Humphrey Milford, p. 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.

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

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

Translations