Silver \Sil"ver\, n. [OE. silver, selver, seolver, AS. seolfor, siolfur, siolufr, silofr, sylofr; akin to OS. silubar, OFries. selover, D. zilver, LG. sulver, OHG. silabar, silbar, G. silber, Icel. silfr, Sw. silfver, Dan. s["o]lv, Goth. silubr, Russ. serebro, Lith. sidabras; of unknown origin.]

1. (Chem.) A soft white metallic element, sonorous, ductile, very malleable, and capable of a high degree of polish. It is found native, and also combined with sulphur, arsenic, antimony, chlorine, etc., in the minerals argentite, proustite, pyrargyrite, ceragyrite, etc. Silver is one of the ``noble'' metals, so-called, not being easily oxidized, and is used for coin, jewelry, plate, and a great variety of articles. Symbol Ag (Argentum). Atomic weight 107.7. Specific gravity 10.5.

Note: Silver was known under the name of luna to the ancients and also to the alchemists. Some of its compounds, as the halogen salts, are remarkable for the effect of light upon them, and are used in photography.

2. Coin made of silver; silver money.

3. Anything having the luster or appearance of silver.

4. The color of silver.

Note: Silver is used in the formation of many compounds of obvious meaning; as, silver-armed, silver-bright, silver-buskined, silver-coated, silver-footed, silver-haired, silver-headed, silver-mantled, silver-plated, silver-slippered, silver-sounding, silver-studded, silver-tongued, silver-white. See Silver, a.

Black silver (Min.), stephanite; -- called also brittle silver ore, or brittle silver glance.

Fulminating silver. (Chem.)
   (a) A black crystalline substance, Ag2O.(NH3)2, obtained by dissolving silver oxide in aqua ammonia. When dry it explodes violently on the slightest percussion.
   (b) Silver fulminate, a white crystalline substance, Ag2C2N2O2, obtained by adding alcohol to a solution of silver nitrate. When dry it is violently explosive.

German silver. (Chem.) See under German.

Gray silver. (Min.) See Freieslebenite.

Horn silver. (Min.) See Cerargyrite.

King's silver. (O. Eng. Law) See Postfine.

Red silver, or Ruby silver. (Min.) See Proustite, and Pyrargyrite.

Silver beater, one who beats silver into silver leaf or silver foil.

Silver glance, or Vitreous silver. (Min.) See Argentine.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Red horse. (Zo["o]l.)
   (a) Any large American red fresh-water sucker, especially Moxostoma macrolepidotum and allied species.
   (b) See the Note under Drumfish.

Red lead. (Chem) See under Lead, and Minium.

Red-lead ore. (Min.) Same as Crocoite.

Red liquor (Dyeing), a solution consisting essentially of aluminium acetate, used as a mordant in the fixation of dyestuffs on vegetable fiber; -- so called because used originally for red dyestuffs. Called also red mordant.

Red maggot (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the wheat midge.

Red manganese. (Min.) Same as Rhodochrosite.

Red man, one of the American Indians; -- so called from his color.

Red maple (Bot.), a species of maple (Acer rubrum). See Maple.

Red mite. (Zo["o]l.) See Red spider, below.

Red mulberry (Bot.), an American mulberry of a dark purple color (Morus rubra).

Red mullet (Zo["o]l.), the surmullet. See Mullet.

Red ocher (Min.), a soft earthy variety of hematite, of a reddish color.

Red perch (Zo["o]l.), the rosefish.

Red phosphorus. (Chem.) See under Phosphorus.

Red pine (Bot.), an American species of pine (Pinus resinosa); -- so named from its reddish bark.

Red precipitate. See under Precipitate.

Red Republican (European Politics), originally, one who maintained extreme republican doctrines in France, -- because a red liberty cap was the badge of the party; an extreme radical in social reform. [Cant]

Red ribbon, the ribbon of the Order of the Bath in England.

Red sanders. (Bot.) See Sanders.

Red sandstone. (Geol.) See under Sandstone.

Red scale (Zo["o]l.), a scale insect (Aspidiotus aurantii) very injurious to the orange tree in California and Australia.

Red silver (Min.), an ore of silver, of a ruby-red or reddish black color. It includes proustite, or light red silver, and pyrargyrite, or dark red silver.

Red snapper (Zo["o]l.), a large fish (Lutlanus aya or Blackfordii) abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and about the Florida reefs.

Red snow, snow colored by a mocroscopic unicellular alga (Protococcus nivalis) which produces large patches of scarlet on the snows of arctic or mountainous regions.

Red softening (Med.) a form of cerebral softening in which the affected parts are red, -- a condition due either to infarction or inflammation.

Red spider (Zo["o]l.), a very small web-spinning mite (Tetranychus telarius) which infests, and often destroys, plants of various kinds, especially those cultivated in houses and conservatories. It feeds mostly on the under side of the leaves, and causes them to turn yellow and die. The adult insects are usually pale red. Called also red mite.

Red squirrel (Zo["o]l.), the chickaree.

Red tape, the tape used in public offices for tying up documents, etc.; hence, official formality and delay.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)