Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Silken; made of silk.
  • Silky; feeling like silk.
  • Of the color of the silkworm-moth; of a pale-yellow color.

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

  • adjective obsolete Silken; made of silk.
  • adjective Being of the color of the silkworm; transparent with a yellow tint.

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

  • adjective obsolete silken; made of silk
  • adjective obsolete Of the colour of the silkworm; transparent with a yellow tint.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin bombycinus. See bombazine.

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Examples

  • But what is peculiar to this disease, and distinguishes it from all others at the first glance of the eye, is the bombycinous colour of the skin, which, like that of full-grown silkworms, has a degree of transparency with a yellow tint not greater than is natural to the serum of the blood.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • _ Paucity of bile from a partial inaction of the liver; hence the bombycinous colour of the skin, grey stools, urine not yellow, indigestion, debility, followed by tympany, dropsy, and death.

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • She had the bombycinous complexion, and looked like a chlorotic patient, though so young; this generally proceeds from an acid in the stomach.

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

Comments

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  • Pale yellow, like a silkworm; silken (from Latin bombycinus).

    July 12, 2008

  • Also used to describe a type of fabric, I believe (as in bombazine).

    July 21, 2008