Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Vermilion
1.
(Chem.)
A bright red pigment consisting of mercuric sulphide, obtained either from the mineral cinnabar or artificially. It has a fine red color, and is much used in coloring sealing wax, in printing, etc.
☞ The kermes insect has long been used for dyeing red or scarlet. It was formerly known as the worm dye, vermiculus, or vermiculum, and the cloth was called vermiculatia. Hence came the French vermeil for any red dye, and hence the modern name vermilion, although the substance it denotes is very different from the kermes, being a compound of mercury and sulphur.
R. Hunt.
2.
Hence, a red color like the pigment; a lively and brilliant red;
as, cheeks of
. vermilion
Ver-mil′ion
,Verb.
T.
To color with vermilion, or as if with vermilion; to dye red; to cover with a delicate red.
Definition 2024
vermilion
vermilion
English
Alternative forms
- vermillion (more at vermillion § Usage notes)
Noun
vermilion (plural vermilions)
- A vivid red synthetic pigment made of mercury sulfide.
- A vivid red or slightly orange colour.
-
vermilion colour:
- 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Part 3
- I, struggling faintly, could not help feeling what I could not grasp, a column of the whitest ivory, beautifully streak'd with blue veins, and carrying, fully uncapt, a head of the liveliest vermilion
-
- A type of red dye worn in the parting of the hair by married Hindu women.
- The red skin of the lips or its border with the skin of the face.
Translations
pigment
colour
|
dye
Adjective
vermilion (comparative more vermilion, superlative most vermilion)
- Having a brilliant red colour.
- Having the color of the vermilion dye.
Translations
having a brilliant red colour
having the color of vermilion dye
See also
Verb
vermilion (third-person singular simple present vermilions, present participle vermilioning, simple past and past participle vermilioned)
- (transitive) To color or paint vermilion.