damascene

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To decorate (metal) with wavy patterns of inlay or etching.
2. n. Metalwork decorated with wavy patterns of inlay or etching.
3. adj. Of or relating to damascening.
4. adj. Of or relating to damask.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Of or pertaining to the city of Damascus, anciently and still the capital of Syria, and under the Ommiad califs capital of the Mohammedan empire, long celebrated for its works in steel. See damascus.
2. [lowercase] Of or pertaining to the art of damaskeening, or to something made by that process.
3. The style of work displayed in the artistic watered-steel blades for which the city of Damascus is celebrated. The variegated color of these blades is due to the crystallization of cast-steel highly charged with carbon, an effect produced by a careful process of cooling. The phrase is also applied to ornaments slightly etched on a steel surface, and also to other surfaces of similar appearance, as, for example, to an etched surface of metallic iron.
4. n. An inhabitant or a native of the city of Damascus.
5. n. [L. Damascena, ⟨ Gr. Δαμασκηνή, the region about Damascus, prop. fem. of the adj.] The district in which Damascus is situated.
6. n. [lowercase] Same as damson.
7. Same as damaskeen.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Of or relating to Damascus.
2. n. A kind of plum, now called damson. See damson.
3. v. Same as damask, or damaskeen, v. t.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. inlay metal with gold and silver
2. adj. of or relating to or characteristic of Damascus or its people
3. n. a design produced by inlaying gold or silver into steel
4. n. a native or inhabitant of Damascus
5. adj. (of metals) decorated or inlaid with a wavy pattern of different (especially precious) metals