crayon
UK /ˈkɹeɪ̯.ɒn/ · US /ˈkɹeɪ̯.ɑn/ noun, verb
Forms crayons crayoning crayonning crayoned crayonned
- noun A stick of colored chalk or wax used for drawing.
- noun (obsolete) A colored pencil, a colouring pencil
- noun (dated) A crayon drawing, or a drawing with colored lines.
- noun (dated) A pencil of carbon used in producing electric light.
- verb (ambitransitive) To draw with a crayon.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from French crayon (“pencil”), from craie (“chalk”) + -on (diminutive suffix), from Latin crēta (“chalk, clay”), perhaps from crētus.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An implement for drawing, made of clay and plumbago, or of some preparation of chalk, usually sold in small prisms or cylinders.
- noun A crayon drawing.
- verb To sketch, as with a crayon; to sketch or plan.
Etymology [F., a crayon, a lead pencil (crayon Conté Conté's pencil, i. e., one made a black compound invented by Conté), fr. craie chalk, L. creta; said to be, properly, Cretan earth, fr. Creta the island Crete. Cf. Cretaceous.]
Etymology [Cf. F. crayonner.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “crayon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details