Silt
(Silt), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Silted; p. pr. & vb. n. Silting.] To choke, fill, or obstruct with silt or
mud.
Silt
(Silt), v. i. To flow through crevices; to percolate.
Silty
(Silt"y) a. Full of silt; resembling silt.
Silure
(Si*lure") n. [L. silurus a sort of river fish, Gr. : cf. F. silure.] (Zoöl.) A fish of the genus Silurus,
as the sheatfish; a siluroid.
Silurian
(Si*lu"ri*an) a. [From L. Silures, a people who anciently inhabited a part of England and Wales.]
(Geol.) Of or pertaining to the country of the ancient Silures; — a term applied to the earliest of the Paleozoic
eras, and also to the strata of the era, because most plainly developed in that country.
The Silurian formation, so named by Murchison, is divided into the Upper Silurian and Lower Silurian.
The lower part of the Lower Silurian, with some underlying beds, is now separated under the name Cambrian,
first given by Sedwick. Recently the term Ordovician has been proposed for the Lower Silurian, leawing
the original word to apply only to the Upper Silurian.
Silurian
(Si*lu"ri*an), n. The Silurian age.
Siluridan
(Si*lu"ri*dan) n. (Zoöl.) Any fish of the family Siluridæ or of the order Siluroidei.
Siluroid
(Si*lu"roid) n. [Silurus + -oid.] (Zoöl.) Belonging to the Siluroidei, or Nematognathi, an order of
fishes including numerous species, among which are the American catfishes and numerous allied fresh-
water species of the Old World, as the sheatfish (Silurus glanis) of Europe. — n. A siluroid fish.
Siluroidei
(||Sil`u*roi"de*i) n. pl. [NL.] (zoöl.) An order of fishes, the Nematognathi.
Silurus
(||Si*lu"rus) n. [L. See Silure.] (Zoöl.) A genus of large malacopterygious fishes of the order
Siluroidei. They inhabit the inland waters of Europe and Asia.
Silva
(Sil"va) n.; pl. E. Silvas L. Silvae [L., properly, a wood, forest.] [Written also sylva.] (Bot.) (a)
The forest trees of a region or country, considered collectively. (b) A description or history of the forest
trees of a country.
Silvan
(Sil"van) a. [L. silva, less correctly sylva, a wood or grove, perh. akin to Gr. "y`lh; cf. L. Silvanus
Silvanus the god of woods: cf. F. sylvain silvan. Cf. Savage.] Of or pertaining to woods; composed of
woods or groves; woody. [Written also sylvan.]
Betwixt two rows of rocks, a silvan scene
Appears above, and groves forever green.
Dryden. Silvan
(Sil"van), n. (Old Chem.) See Sylvanium. [Obs.]
Silvanite
(Sil"van*ite) n. (Min.) See Sylvanite.
Silvas
(Sil"vas or Sel"vas) , n. pl. [L. silva a forest, Sp. selva.] Vast woodland plains of South America.
Silvate
(Sil"vate) n. (Chem.) Same as Sylvate.
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. sölv, 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
