English
chamois
Pronunciation Noun

chamois

  1. A short#Adjective|short-horned#Adjective|horned goat antelope native#Adjective|native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.
    • 1831 October 30, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 858441409 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=emu.000011593191;view=1up;seq=40 page 22]:
      When my father returned from Milan, he found playing with me in the hall of our villa a child fairer than pictured cherub – a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks and whose form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hills.
  2. Usually as chamois leather: soft pliable leather originally made from the skin of chamois (nowadays the hides of deer, sheep, and other species of goat are alternatively used).
  3. The traditional colour of chamois leather.
     
  4. An absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.
    • 1926, Louise de Koven Bowen, Growing Up with a City, University of Illinois Press ISBN 9780252070440, page 39
      I took them, breathed on them, polished them with a chamois and hung them on the chandelier.
    • 1984, Cruising World, page 158
      Mirrors can be cleaned with warm water and ammonia or vinegar and polished with a chamois.
    • 1989, Popular Mechanics, page 146
      Once your paint has been restored, drying your car with a chamois is just about all you have to do to restore the luster.
Translations Translations Translations Adjective

chamois (not comparable)

  1. Chamois-colored.
Verb

chamois (chamoises, present participle chamoising; past and past participle chamoised)

  1. (transitive) To clean with a chamois leather cloth.
    Synonyms: shammy


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