chamoises

Noun

chamois (countable and uncountable, plural chamoises or chamois or chamoix)

1. A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.
   • 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.1831 October 31, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, chapter I, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 22
2. The traditional colour of chamois leather.
3. An absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.
   • I took them, breathed on them, polished them with a chamois and hung them on the chandelier.1926, Louise de Koven Bowen, Growing Up with a City, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 39
4. A padded insert which protects the groin from the bicycle saddle.

See all 6 meanings of chamois