velvet(1) (iou) and Yagoda, Genrikh (Grigoryevich) (sh)

velvet(1) (iou)

velvet noun & adjective. ME.
[Old French veluotte, from velu velvety from medieval Latin villutus, from Latin villus hair.]
A. noun.
A soft closely woven fabric of silk, cotton, etc., with a short dense pile. ME.
fig.: E. B. White A line as smooth as velvet to the ear.
b. A piece of this fabric. LME.
c. A garment, esp. a dress, made of velvet. M19.
D. Barnes A tight-fitting velvet with buttons all down the front.
d. Gain, profit, winnings. Freq. in to the velvet, to the good. slang. E20.
The soft downy skin which covers a deer's antler while in the growing stage. LME.
A surface, substance, etc., resembling velvet in appearance or softness of texture. L16.
T. Gray The velvet of her paws.
Phrases: black velvet: see BLACK adjective. in velvet (of a deer) having the antlers covered with velvet. on velvet slang in a position of ease or advantage; in an advantageous or prosperous condition. UTRECHT velvet.
b. attrib. or as adjective.
Made of velvet. ME.
A. Craig She tied a black velvet ribbon round her throat.
Resembling velvet in texture; soft, smooth, velvety. L16.
B. Neil The [car] door..shut..with the velvet click of expensive machinery.
Comb. & special collocations: velvet ant any of various mutillid wasps which have a velvety appearance and wingless females; velvet bean a climbing bean with densely hairy pods, Mucuna deeringiana, grown as a fodder plant in tropical and subtropical regions; velvet carpet a cut-pile carpet similar to Wilton; velvet copper ore cyanotrichite; velvet crab = velvet swimming crab below; velvet-dock common mullein; velvet duck = velvet scoter below; velvet fiddler crab = velvet swimming crab below; velvetfish a small Australian fish, Aploactisoma milesii, which is covered with velvety papillae and is frequent in shallow coastal waters; velvet glove an appearance of urbanity and gentleness, esp. one masking firmness or inflexibility (cf. iron hand in a velvet glove s.v. IRON adjective); velvet grass N. Amer. Yorkshire fog, Holcus lanatus; velvet-guard a trimming of velvet; a wearer of such trimmings; velvet-leaf any of several plants with soft velvety leaves; esp. the Indian mallow, Abutilon theophrasti, and the false pareira Cissampelos pareira; velvet-painting the Art of painting on velvet using diluted semi-transparent colours; velvet-pile adjective & noun (a) adjective having a pile like that of velvet; (b) noun a carpet or fabric of this kind; velvet revolution [translating Czech sametova revoluce] a non-violent political revolution, esp. one in which a totalitarian regime is replaced; spec. the sequence of events in Czechoslovakia which led to the ending of communist rule in late 1989; velvet sauce = VELOUTe; velvet scoter a holarctic scoter, Melanitta fusca, which is black with a white wing patch; velvet sponge a soft flat commercial sponge which is a form of Hippospongia equina found in the Caribbean area; velvet sumac stag-horn sumac, Rhus hirta; velvet swimming crab any of several swimming crabs which have the carapace covered with fine hair; esp. Liocarcinus puber, which is common on rocky coasts of the N. Atlantic; velvet-worm = ONYCHOPHORAN noun.
velveted adjective covered with velvet or a velvety substance; dressed in velvet: E17.

Yagoda, Genrikh (Grigoryevich) (sh)

born 1891, ?odz, Pol., Russian Empire
died March 15, 1938, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.

Soviet politician.

A leader of the Cheka secret police (1920-24) and its successor, the OGPU (1924-34), and a close associate of Joseph Stalin, he organized the Soviet's forced-labour camps from 1930 and became a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee in 1934. As head of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs, or NKVD, he prepared the first of the purge trials (1936). In 1937 he was replaced as police chief by Nikolay Yezhov and himself became a victim of the widespread purges. Accused of being a member of a "Trotskyite" conspiracy intent on destroying the Soviet Union through sabotage, he was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed.

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