pink
/ˈpɪŋk/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms pinks pinker pinkest pinking pinked
- noun A color reminiscent of pinks, the flowers. “My new dress is a wonderful shade of pink.”
- noun Magenta, the colour evoked by red and blue light when combined.
- noun Pale red.
- noun Any of various flowers of that colour in the genus Dianthus, sometimes called carnations. “This garden in particular has a beautiful bed of pinks.”
- noun (dated) A perfect example; excellence, perfection; the embodiment of some quality. “Your hat, madam, is the very pink of fashion.”
- noun Hunting pink; scarlet, as worn by hunters.
- noun A huntsman.
- noun (snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, coloured pink, with a value of 6 points. “Oh dear, he's left himself snookered behind the pink.”
- adjective Having a colour between red and white; pale red.
- adjective Of a fox-hunter's jacket: scarlet.
- adjective Having conjunctivitis.
- adjective By comparison to red (communist), supportive of socialist ideas but not actually socialist or communist.
- adjective (informal) Relating to women or girls. “pink-collar”
- adjective (informal) Relating to homosexuals as a group within society. “the pink economy”
- verb (intransitive) To become pink in color, to redden.
- verb (transitive) To turn (something) pink.
- verb (transitive) To turn (a topaz or other gemstone) pink by the application of heat.
- noun (regional) A common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus0.
- noun (regional) A young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, before it becomes a smolt; a parr.
- noun (now obsolete) A narrow boat.
Synonyms
draw blood jab prick chef chib ching chive enthrill foin gore gride job juke kebab knifecrime lancinate pigstick poach run through shank garden pink pinko tap rap knock ping pinkish
Etymology
Origin uncertain; perhaps from Dutch pinken (“to blink”) or the English verb pink from the same source. Perhaps from the notion of the petals being pinked. An earlier word for similar flesh-like colors, mostly displaced by pink, was incarnation ([1300s]; see Etymonline) and carnation.
Unknown. Some lexicographers suggest comparison to regional German Pinke (“minnow; small salmon”), but this is not widely accepted.
Borrowed from Middle Dutch pincke. Compare French pinque.
Probably ultimately imitative, or from Dutch pingelen (“to do fine needlework”) or Low German [Term?]; compare Low German pinken (“hit, peck”) and Pinke (“big needle”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A vessel with a very narrow stern; --called also pinky. Sir W. Scott. Pink stern (Naut.), a narrow stern.
- verb To wink; to blink. [Obs.] L'Estrange.
- adjective Half-shut; winking. [Obs.] Shak.
- verb To pierce with small holes; to cut the edge of, as cloth or paper, in small scallops or angles.
Etymology [D. pink.]
Etymology [D. pinken, pinkoogen, to blink, twinkle with the eyes.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pink”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details