chamoising

Variant of chamois

noun pl. chamois

  1. a small goat antelope (Rupicapra rupicapra) of the mountains of Europe and the Caucasus, having straight horns with the tips bent backward
  2. also sp. chammy
    1. a soft leather made from its skin or from the skin of sheep, deer, goats, etc.
    2. a piece of this leather, used as a polishing cloth

Origin: Fr < LL camox < a native Alpine word of IE orig.; akin to Gr kemas, young deer: see hind

adjective

  1. made of chamois
  2. yellowish-brown

transitive verb chamoised , chamoising

to polish with a chamois skin
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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