shammy leather
- noun
- /ˈʃæmi ˈlɛðər/
- US
- He wiped the car with a shammy leather to remove the water spots.
Examples
-
Always store your shammy leather damp to keep it soft and pliable.
-
A clean shammy leather is perfect for polishing windows.
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I bought a new shammy leather cloth for cleaning my car.
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The shammy leather is perfect for polishing glass.
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A clean shammy leather is perfect for polishing windows.
-
He wiped the car with a shammy leather to remove the water spots.
-
Always store your shammy leather damp to keep it soft and pliable.
Synonyms
4
9.1
A soft cloth made from leather used for cleaning and polishing things
1
8.0
A soft leather cloth used to dry and polish things like cars or shoes
1
5.6
A soft cloth that soaks up water and polishes cars and windows
1
9.9
A soft, thin leather cloth used for drying and polishing cars
1
7.3
A soft cloth made from animal skin used to dry and polish surfaces
A soft, flexible material from animal skin that you use to clean and polish
Soft absorbent cloth used to clean and shine cars and other surfaces
How Absorbent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'shammy' denotes an absorbent cleaning leather and 'leather' names the material, so 'shammy leather' straightforwardly means leather of the shammy (absorbent/cleaning) type. This adjective+noun pattern is a regular, cross-linguistically common construction, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The name shammy leather comes from the French word 'chamois', the soft skin of a mountain goat-like animal that people long ago used for cleaning and polishing. Because that skin was very soft and soaked up water, the name now means a soft leather often made from 'sheepskin' and used to dry and polish things.