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Glite Dictionary
cornsilk

cornsilk

1 8.0
The long silky threads that come from the top of an ear of corn
  • noun
  • /ˈkɔrnˌsɪlk/
translation icon : seda de maíz
  • The little girl wore a delicate crown made of cornsilk to match her sunny personality.
  • cornsilk hair
  • cornsilk blond

Examples

  • The farmer gently pulled back the husk to reveal the cornsilk strands, signaling that the corn was ripe.

  • Tatters of cornsilk hair, circumscribing his naked scalp, glow in moonlight that sizzles through boughs of pine.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • What am I supposed to pack it with, cornsilk?

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Hair the color of wheat in sunlight, like cornsilk under his hand when he crashed her to him.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Her head reaches just under my breasts, and from there her amazing cornsilk hair fans up and out over my shoulders.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • You barely know what cornsilks are.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The cornsilk cigarette Harold gave thee behind the store this morning.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I mean, you started chain-smoking cornsilks when you were ten or something.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Her long hair was like cornsilk and completely flat, and her eyes were blue as the dondiego flowers that Eloy's mother planted along the fence.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • He was twenty-one, loose-limbed, with hair the white-blond of cornsilk and pale green eyes in a smooth, unremarkable face.

    Fiction book (1991)

Synonyms

corn silk
vscornsilk
1 3.5

Long thin soft threads that grow on the top of an ear of corn

is the single word form used instead of two separate words

Surface Forms

cornsilk singular
cornsilks plural

Morphology

cornsilk = corn + silk (transparent) = corn + silk

Clear compound of 'corn' and 'silk' referring to the silky threads of an ear of corn.

Etymology

Cornsilk is a simple name made of corn, meaning 'grain' or the vegetable we call corn, and silk, meaning 'soft, shiny thread'. The name paints a picture of the long, soft threads like 'silk' that stick out of an ear of corn, and that's exactly what cornsilk means today.