Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A region of central Europe primarily in southwest Poland and the northern Czech Republic. Settled by Slavic peoples c. AD 500, the region was long contested by various states and principalities. After World War I Silesia was partitioned among Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Much of the Czechoslovakian section passed to Germany and Poland after the signing of the Munich Pact in 1938. Germany occupied Polish Silesia from 1939 to 1945, and after World War II Poland annexed most of German Silesia. Upper Silesia, in southern Poland, is an important industrialized area.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fine brown holland, originally made in Silesia and now produced in England: it is glazed for window-shades or roller-blinds.
  • noun A thin cotton cloth, commonly twilled, used for linings for women's dresses and men's garments.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of linen cloth, originally made in Silesia, a province of Prussia.
  • noun A twilled cotton fabric, used for dress linings.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A region of central Europe, spanning parts of present-day Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a region of central Europe rich in deposits of coal and iron ore; annexed by Prussia in 1742 but now largely in Poland
  • noun a sturdy twill-weave cotton fabric; used for pockets and linings

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The NW has shipping, while Silesia is the heavy coal producer in Poland.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Ghosts of the Past 2009

  • Even Prussia was never a major power until Frederick the Great stole Silesia from the Hapsburg.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Fall of Poland 2010

  • McCaughey, Ray and Harold Gaby, were sent to Lamsdorf (Stalag VIIIB) in Silesia, which was in Poland, to work in coalmines and petrochemical works.

    John McWilliams 2010

  • I was taught music, German and Greek by a German refugee from a Junker family in Silesia who had left home for England in the 1930s because he couldn't bear the Nazi government and what it was doing to his country.

    Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: 2009

  • I was taught music, German and Greek by a German refugee from a Junker family in Silesia who had left home for England in the 1930s because he couldn't bear the Nazi government and what it was doing to his country.

    Television 2009

  • Brenning conducted POW relief operations primarily in Silesia, working out of Breslau.

    Pursuit of an 'Unparalleled Opportunity': The American YMCA and Prisoner of War Diplomacy among the Central Power Nations during World War I 2008

  • The Soviets had advanced a long way from the Vistula, but fortified pockets of German troops remained — around Königsberg, the old Prussian capital, and Danzig, at the mouth of the Vistula; at Breslau, in Silesia, and the Hungarian capital, Budapest, where they were desperately withstanding a siege that was to last six weeks and to tie down R.Y. Malinovsky's army group.

    The Nazis' Last Stand 2002

  • My mother's parents were farmers in Silesia, which has now become part of Poland.

    Wolfgang Ketterle - Autobiography 2002

  • The Soviets had advanced a long way from the Vistula, but fortified pockets of German troops remained — around Königsberg, the old Prussian capital, and Danzig, at the mouth of the Vistula; at Breslau, in Silesia, and the Hungarian capital, Budapest, where they were desperately withstanding a siege that was to last six weeks and to tie down R.Y. Malinovsky's army group.

    The Nazis' Last Stand 2002

  • My name seems to have its origins in Silesia where my father's family originated and there is a town in Poland now called

    Harold Kroto - Autobiography 1997

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