velvet

A closely woven fabric (originally of silk, now also of cotton or man-made fibres) with a thick short pile on one side.countableuncountable

• For the first time since her husband's death, she had thrown off her weeds, and put on attire more suited to the occasion. She was richly, yet plainly dressed, in a purple velvet, with a hood of white point lace. Even her silent handmaids w
• She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace,[…]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […] all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth,

Very fine fur, including the skin and fur on a deer's antlers.countableuncountable

• His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſet pyll vpon it, the which is called Veluet, […]

A female chinchilla; a sow.countablerare

The drug dextromethorphan.slanguncountable

Money acquired by gambling.slanguncountable

To cover with velvet or with a covering of a similar texture.

• Penmachno mill is situate where a stream has furrowed a deep channel, and velveted the rocks with the richest mosses […].
• Last week the scaffolds were up in the hall once more. This time the back wall is to be velveted in absorbent fiber glass […]

To coat raw meat in starch, then in oil, preparatory to frying.

• Blanching cut and specially marinated chicken in oil or water prior to stir-frying is a technique common to Chinese restaurant kitchens. The 20-second bath tenderizes the chicken remarkably, hence the process has been dubbed "velveting" in

To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers.

• 2014, "Top genetic selection produces biggest antlers," NZFarmer.co.nz, 12 July, 2014, http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/10255646/Top-genetic-selection-produces-biggest-antlers Reacting to painkillers when velveted, Sover

To soften; to mitigate.figurativelytransitive

• She spoke very gently, full of compassion for the boy, velveting her reproach for me.

to retract.

Made of velvet.

Soft and delicate, like velvet; velvety.

• The fawn then rose up, and creeping gently about the room, touched the cheeks or hands of the slumbering inmates with its velvet tongue, but so softly that none were awakened.
• the cowslip's velvet head

Peaceful; carried out without violence; especially as pertaining to the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia.

• “I was once invited to give a speech about the attempt to topple Iran's political system through a ‘velvet revolution,’ ” says Etaat in the debate, “but we all know that ‘velvet revolutions’ always occur in dictatorships.”