Home UK English moire

Meaning of moire in English:

moire

(also moiré)

Pronunciation /mwɑː/

noun

mass noun

  • Silk fabric that has been subjected to heat and pressure rollers after weaving to give it a rippled appearance.

    ‘a backless dress fashioned out of moire in the new fashionable colour’
    • ‘many brocades and moires have a high acetate content’
    • ‘Wall coverings include florals, ticking, toile, and moirés depending on the level of formality.’
    • ‘In the firm's classic line, pure silk moire is making a comeback, and black is back.’
    • ‘The term moiré, by the way, comes from watered silk, as mentioned in Pepys' Diary.’
    • ‘They gathered up the 60 feet of rose watered moiré and wrapped the train around the body and arms of their master.’
    • ‘Smooth, shiny surfaces such as silk, moiré, chintz and silk-like looks support a more formal feeling in a room.’

adjective

  • 1(of silk) having a rippled, lustrous finish.

    ‘Now they carried the 60 feet of pale rose-colored moiré silk to the pit and held them high above the mud.’
    • ‘Mannish cropped trousers were paired with masculine grey flannel coats covered in subdued moiré swirls, perfect black capes lined in printed silk, and short coachman mantles edged in white mink.’
    • ‘The firm's voile fabrics had a moire effect created by weaving three different colored nylon layers together.’
    • ‘I soon found out that my 1 yard of brocade was not enough to make the jacket so I pieced the moiré where I could.’
    • ‘The flaring ends of the dress were skirted in moiré and beads of black lace edged the plunging neckline and flaring cuffs.’
    • ‘With his fingernails the valet moved quickly across the moiré, so that the costly fabric hissed and squeaked.’
    multicoloured, many-hued, prismatic, rainbow-like, kaleidoscopic, iridescent, lustrous, shimmering, glittering, sparkling, scintillating, variegated, shot, moiré, opaline, milky, pearly, nacreous, pearlescent
    1. 1.1Having a pattern of irregular wavy lines like that of moire.
      ‘another video picture defect is the flickering moiré effect seen on finely patterned surfaces’
      • ‘The knifed-on ellipses stand out in slight relief against multicolored grounds of poured and squeegeed paint that sometimes imitate woodgrain or moire patterns.’
      • ‘The two surfaces of bright dipped anodised mesh create a moire pattern and conceal the aluminium tube substructure to which the rear piece of the boxes is fixed.’
      • ‘Though lavishly illustrated, the photos are marred in many cases by inaccurate captions or even moiré patterns that any skilled scanner operator could have avoided.’
      • ‘I saw no pixelization, moiré patterns, edge enhancement, or anything else that would ruin your experience.’
      • ‘He wears a striped suit that has a wicked moiré effect on TV.’
      • ‘It is an abstract meditation film made with hand-drawn, optical moiré patterns set to an Indian raga soundtrack.’
      • ‘Further moiré, marbled and feathered patterns of spiraling lines and spinning concentric circles hype the image up with bang, wallop and wham-bam.’
      • ‘The image is flawless, save for occasional moiré patterns caused by the tacky '70s clothing patterns.’
      • ‘There is shimmering and moiré noise all over the place.’
      • ‘On top of an overall soft and grainy print, there's some artifacting, moiré shimmering, and haloing.’
      • ‘The only flaws I noticed were some occasional noise in solid surfaces and some occasional moiré / shimmer in the exteriors of brick or stone buildings.’
      • ‘There were video flaws, especially digital artifacts, shimmer, and moiré, but the image was stable and the detail clear.’
      • ‘There are at least a few spots where moiré noise appears in textures such as stonework.’
      • ‘Edge enhancement is rarely present, and there is a notable lack of moiré rainbows given Harry's checkered suit and pinstriped tie.’
      • ‘An overlay screen consisting of dots reveals enlarged images of the printed halftone dot shapes by means of the moiré phenomenon.’
      • ‘Aside from some bad aliasing and the occasional moiré problem, I could detect no digital flaws at all.’
      • ‘There are numerous instances of edge enhancement, aliasing, and moiré problems.’
      • ‘When scanning from magazines, the magazine filter should be used to avoid moire.’
      • ‘There is some occasional moiré and aliasing evident, but nothing too serious.’
      • ‘Although presented in full frame, there was no noticeable artifacting or moiré.’

Origin

Mid 17th century French moire ‘mohair’ (the original fabric); the variant moiré ‘given a watered appearance’ (past participle of moirer, from moire).