Noun

1. An ornate silk fabric originating from Damascus.

   True damasks are pure silk.

2. A damask rose.
3. A grayish-pink color, like that of the damask rose.

Quotations

• 1836: but what struck Tom's fancy most was a strange, grim-looking, high backed chair, carved in the most fantastic manner, with a flowered damask cushion, and the round knobs at the bottom of the legs carefully tied up in red cloth, as if it had got the gout in its toes. — Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

• 1602: But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, / Feed on her damask cheek — William Shakespeare, Twlefth Night
• 1849: Thursday. D. certainly improved. Better night. Slight tinge of damask revisiting cheek. — Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
• 1849: They had a lurking suspicion even, that he died of secret love; though I must say there was a picture of him in the house with a damask nose, which concealment did not appear to have ever preyed upon. — Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
• 1973: My cage has many rooms / Damask and dark / Nothing there sings, / Not even my lark. — Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd