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Glite Dictionary
vegetable silk

vegetable silk

9.1
Soft, silky plant fiber from a tropical tree that fills pillows and insulates
  • noun
  • /ˈvɛdʒtəbl sɪlk/
translation icon : seda vegetal
  • Pillows filled with vegetable silk are light and comfortable.

Examples

  • The insulation material was made from vegetable silk harvested in Southeast Asia.

  • Because vegetable silk is naturally buoyant, it was once used in life jackets.

  • I bought some vegetable silk for my new pillow.

  • The vegetable silks are perfect for insulation.

  • Pillows filled with vegetable silk provide excellent softness and support.

  • The eco-friendly vegetable silk is an ideal choice for stuffing cushions.

  • After researching natural materials, I decided to use vegetable silk for my new pillow project.

Synonyms

silk cotton
vsvegetable silk
4.6

A soft, light fiber from the kapok tree that people use to fill pillows and keep things warm

is the general term for that fiber without a pillow focus
kapok
vsvegetable silk
9.7

A light soft natural fiber from seed pods used to fill pillows and mattresses

refers to the same fiber but used mainly for pillows and insulation

How Soft

silk
237 1.0
vegetable silk
9.1
cotton
115 1.0
straw
79 1.0

Surface Forms

vegetable silk singular
vegetable silks plural

Morphology

vegetable + silk

The phrase is directly compositional: 'vegetable' signals plant-derived and 'silk' signals a soft, silky fiber, so the compound denotes a plant-based silk-like fiber (e.g., kapok). This follows common English noun-noun compounding patterns and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Vegetable silk comes from the soft, shiny fibers inside the seed pods of a tree called kapok; they look like animal silk but come from a vegetable, that is, a plant. Because these fibers are light and warm, people used them to fill pillows and life jackets, so vegetable silk now means 'a soft, silky plant fiber used for stuffing pillows and insulation'.