noun
- delicate ornamental work of fine silver, gold, or other metal wires, especially lacy jewelers’ work of scrolls and arabesques.
- anything very delicate or fanciful: a filigree of frost.
adjective
- composed of or resembling filigree.
verb (used with object), fil·i·greed, fil·i·gree·ing.
- to adorn with or form into filigree.
noun
- delicate ornamental work of twisted gold, silver, or other wire
- any fanciful delicate ornamentation
adjective
- made of or as if with filigree
verb -grees, -greeing or -greed
- (tr) to decorate with or as if with filigree
1690s, shortening of filigreen (1660s), from French filigrane “filigree” (17c.), from Italian filigrana, from Latin filum “thread” (see file (v.)) + granum “grain” (see corn (n.1)). Related: Filigreed.