velveting

Verb

velvet (third-person singular simple present velvets, present participle velveting, simple past and past participle velveted)

1. To cover with velvet or with a covering of a similar texture.
   • Penmachno mill is situate where a stream has furrowed a deep channel, and velveted the rocks with the richest mosses […].1834, Edward Price, Norway. Views of Wild Scenery: and Journal, London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., Part I, p. 16
2. To coat raw meat in starch, then in oil, preparatory to frying.
   • Blanching cut and specially marinated chicken in oil or water prior to stir-frying is a technique common to Chinese restaurant kitchens. The 20-second bath tenderizes the chicken remarkably, hence the process has been dubbed "velveting" in English. Velveted chicken is half-cooked, will not stick to...1982, Barbara Tropp, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking, Morrow, published 1982, page 137
3. To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers.
   • Reacting to painkillers when velveted, Sovereign II was too sick to grow antlers last year, but has since recovered.2014, "Top genetic selection produces biggest antlers," NZFarmer.co.nz, 12 July, 2014, http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/10255646/Top-genetic-selection-produces-biggest-antlers
4. (figuratively, transitive) To soften; to mitigate.
   • She spoke very gently, full of compassion for the boy, velveting her reproach for me.2006, Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale
5. to retract.

See all 13 meanings of velvet