Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to woods; composed of woods or groves; woody.
  • noun (Old Chem.), obsolete See sylvanium.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective pertaining to the forest, or woodlands
  • adjective wooded, or covered in forest
  • noun chemistry, obsolete tellurium

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or characteristic of wooded regions
  • noun a spirit that lives in or frequents the woods

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See sylvanium.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin sylvanus, from Latin Silvanus ("god of the woods"), from silva ("forest").

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Examples

  • Within this silvan palace the most important personages present were invited to hold high festival.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • The dance around the Maypole was arrested — the ring broken up and dispersed, while the dancers, each leading his partner by the hand, tripped, off to the silvan theatre.

    The Abbot 2008

  • But the destruction of silvan beauty is great when the breadth of the road is more than proportioned to the vale through which it runs, and lowers, of course, the consequence of any objects of wood or water, or broken and varied ground, which might otherwise attract notice and give pleasure.

    Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

  • As Simon strolled pensively through a little silvan glade, surrounded on either side with tall forest trees, mixed with underwood, a white doe broke from the thicket, closely pursued by two deer greyhounds, one of which griped her haunch, the other her throat, and pulled her down within half a furlong of the glover, who was something startled at the suddenness of the incident.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • Yet the borders of this wild and silvan region, where the mountains descended upon the lake, intimated, even at that early period, many traces of human habitation.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • These were generally used at the period by such as either had their principal occupation, or their chief pleasure, in silvan sports, as they served to protect the legs against the rough and tangled thickets into which the pursuit of game frequently led them. —

    The Monastery 2008

  • The chase of the wolf, the wild boar, or even the timid stag, required silvan arms; the wild cattle still more demanded this equipment of war-bows and shafts, boar-spears and sharp swords, and other tools of the chase similar to those used in actual war.

    Castle Dangerous 2008

  • A few trees scattered around gave an agreeable and silvan air to the place; and the chapel, that appeared on a rising ground at some distance from the hamlet, was constructed in a style of pleasing simplicity, which corresponded with the whole scene.

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • That the Scottish peasants have had bad thoughts against us, I will be the last to deny; but, long debarred from any silvan sport, you cannot wonder at their crowding to any diversion by wood or river, and still less at their being easily alarmed as to the certainty of the safe footing on which they stand with us.

    Castle Dangerous 2008

  • The Highlanders, well known for ready hatchet men, had constructed a long arbour or silvan banqueting room, capable of receiving two hundred men, while a number of smaller huts around seemed intended for sleeping apartments.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

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