Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Amber
Am′ber
Am′ber
,Am′ber
,Webster 1828 Edition
Amber
AM'BER
,AM'BER
,AM'BER
,Definition 2024
Amber
Amber
English
Proper noun
Amber
- A female given name, popular in the 1980s and the 1990s.
- 1854 Harper's Magazine, Volume IX, June to November 1854, page 667 ("Lady Amber Mayne")
- The youngest daughter of the Marchioness of Summerdown had one of these quaint, pretty names - Amber! - and what a pretty creature she was!
- 1944 Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber, Chicago Review Press, 2000, ISBN 1556524048, page 14
- And then she said softly, "Sarah - I think I'll name her Amber - for the colour of her father's eyes - "
- 2005 Ali Smith, The Accidental, Penguin (2006), ISBN 9780141010397, page 64:
- A bit raddled, maybe thirty, maybe older, tanned like a hitchhiker, dressed like a road protester, one of those older women still determinedly being a girl; all those eighties feministy still-political women were terribly interested in what Eve did. Hippie name. Amber. Ridiculous name.
- 1854 Harper's Magazine, Volume IX, June to November 1854, page 667 ("Lady Amber Mayne")
- A surname of uncertain origin.
- 1901 Frederick Swainson, Acton's Feud: A Public School Story, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007, ISBN 1426481713, page 14
- Amber, the half, generally waltzed round our forwards, and when he secured he passed the ball on to Aspinall.
- 1901 Frederick Swainson, Acton's Feud: A Public School Story, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007, ISBN 1426481713, page 14
Translations
Etymology 2
From a form of the Hindi आसमान (āsmān, “the heavens”).
Alternative forms
- Ambar
Proper noun
Amber
- A female given name.
- A ruined city in Rajasthan, India.
Anagrams
amber
amber
English
Noun
amber (countable and uncountable, plural ambers)
- (obsolete) Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale. [14th-18th c.]
- 1526, The Grete Herball:
- Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale.
- 1579, The Booke of Simples, fol. 56 (contained in Bulleins Bulwarke of Defence against all Sicknesse, Soarnesse, and Woundes):
- As for Amber Grice, or Amber Cane, which ist most sweet myngled with other sweete thynges: some say it commeth from the rocks of the Sea. […] Some say it is gotten by a fish called Azelum, which feedeth upon Amber Grece, and dyeth, which is taken by cunnyng fishers and the belly opened, and this precious Amber found in hym.
- 1600, John Pory (translator), A Geographical Historie of Africa (original by Leo Africanus), page 344:
- The head of this fish is as hard as stone. The inhabitants of the Ocean sea coast affirme that this fish casteth foorth Amber; but whether the said Amber be the sperma or the excrement thereof, they cannot well determine.
- 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter, 18 Apr 1717:
- Slaves […] with silver Censors […] perfum'd the air with Amber, Aloes wood, and other Scents.
- 1526, The Grete Herball:
- A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent fossil resin, used for jewellery. One variety, blue amber, appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight. [from 15th c.]
- 1594 — Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene III:
- With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery,
- With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.
- 1594 — Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene II:
- Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit.
- 1637, Monro, his expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment (called Mac-Keys Regiment), republished in 1999 (ISBN 0275962679), page 102:
- To shew this by example, we reade of Sabina Poppcea, to whom nothing was wanting , but shame and honestie, being extremely beloved of Nero, had the colour of her haire yellow, like Amber, which Nero esteemed much of, […] .
- 2012 March 1, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 128:
- Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)
- 1594 — Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene III:
- A brownish yellow colour.
-
amber colour:
-
- (Britain) The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection if it is safe to do so.
- 1974, Traffic Planning and Engineering, page 366:
- While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s.
- 2000, in the Journal of Traffic Engineering & Control, volume 41, page 201:
- Also flashing ambers are not operational at this type of crossing.
- 2004 January 14, "AZGuy" (username), "Turn Signal Research shows amber no more effective then red", in rec.autos.driving, Usenet:
- >Problem: Red-red signals are too time consuming when traffic density is higher.
- I don't find them time consuming at all. I find them identical to ambers.
- 1974, Traffic Planning and Engineering, page 366:
- (biology, genetics, biochemistry) The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
- an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor
- 2007, Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, edition 3, page 333:
- For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature.
- 2007, Jonathan C. Kuhn, Detection of Salmonella by Bacteriophage Felix 01, in Salmonella: Methods and Protocols, pages 27–28:
- Double ambers revert at 10-8-10-9, and therefore, reversion is negligible. Double-amber mutants are made by crossing single-amber mutants with each other.
Synonyms
- (intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights): yellow (US)
- (obsolete: the waxy product of the sperm whale): ambergris
Antonyms
Derived terms
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Related terms
Translations
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See also
Adjective
amber (comparative more amber, superlative most amber)
- Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of most amber.
- 2006, Jeffrey Archer, False Impression, page 270:
- They all moved safely through the first green and then the second, but when the third light turned amber Jack's taxi was the last to cross the intersection.
- 2008, Elizabeth Amber, Raine: The Lords of Satyr, page 211:
- Ahead, a cool breeze swept the pale morning sun across a grassy meadow turned amber by morning's frost.
- 2006, Jeffrey Archer, False Impression, page 270:
Translations
Verb
amber (third-person singular simple present ambers, present participle ambering, simple past and past participle ambered)
- (transitive, rare) To perfume or flavour with ambergris.
- ambered wine, an ambered room
- (transitive, rare) To preserve in amber.
- an ambered fly
- (transitive, rare, chiefly poetic or literary) To cause to take on the yellow colour of amber.
- 1885, America the Beautiful;
- For purple mountains majesty; for amber waves of grain.
- 2007, Phil Rickman, Fabric of Sin: A Merrily Watkins Mystery;
- Home to the mosaic of coloured-lit windows in the black and white houses, the fake gas lamps ambering the cobbles, sometimes the scent of applewood smoke.
- 2008, Jeri Westerson, Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir:
- The firelight flickered on her rounded cheeks, ambering the pale skin.
- 1885, America the Beautiful;
- (intransitive, rare, chiefly poetic or literary) To take on the yellow colour of amber.
- 2009, Jack Wennerstrom, Black Coffee, page 19:
- Westward along Lancaster Avenue, among the stone walls and broad driveways of imposing old houses—their lawns dappled with the shade of ambering maples and dusty, bark-peeled sycamores—
- 2011, Tim Powers, On Stranger Tides:
- [T]hough many of the pirates protested against these energetic activities[,] he was only pleasantly tired when the lowering, ambering sun began to bounce needles of gold glare off the waves ahead;
- 2009, Jack Wennerstrom, Black Coffee, page 19:
See also
- electrum
- succinic
- succinic acid
- traffic light
- Appendix:Colors
Anagrams
- ↑ James F. Crow; William F. Dove (1995), “The Amber Mutants of Phage T4”, in Genetics, volume 141, issue 2, PMID 8647382, pages 439–442.
- ↑ Nicholas Wright Gillham (2011), Genes, Chromosomes, and Disease: From Simple Traits, to Complex Traits, to Personalized Medicine.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɑm.bər/
- Hyphenation: am‧ber
Etymology
From Middle French ambre, from Arabic عَنْبَر (ʿanbar, “ambergris”), from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫 (ambar, “ambergris”).
Noun
amber n (plural ambers, diminutive ambertje n)
Synonyms
- (colour of fossil resin): barnsteengeel, barnsteenkleur
- (fossil resin): barnsteen
Related terms
- ambergrijs
Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Of disputed origin.
According to one theory, it is from Proto-Germanic *ambrijaz, *aimbrijaz (“bucket”), from Proto-Indo-European *ambʰor- (“tub, bucket”). If so, then cognate with Old Saxon ēmbar, Old High German ampri, eimbar, Ancient Greek ἀμφορεύς (amphoreús, “vased shaped ornament with a narrow neck”) (whence Latin amphora), Sanskrit अम्भृण (ambhṛṇá, “a vessel used in preparing Soma juice”).
According to another theory, the Proto-Germanic forms derive from a compound equivalent to *ainaz (“one”) + *bariz (“that which is utilised for carrying; bar, crib”).
A third theory considers the Old English term to have been borrowed from Latin amphora. Compare German Eimer.
Noun
amber m
Old High German
Alternative forms
- ampri, eimbar, einber, eimmer
Etymology
Of disputed origin. See amber for more information.
Noun
amber m
Synonyms
- (bucket): einber m
Descendants
- German: Eimer
Turkish
Etymology
From Arabic عَنْبَر (ʿanbar).
Noun
amber (definite accusative amberi, plural amberler)
- Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
- A common noun for nice-smelling things.
- (biochemistry, genetics) The stop codon "UAG".
Derived terms
- akar amber
- amber ağacı
- amber asidi
- amber çiçeği
- boka nispetle tezek amberdir
- esmer amber
- misk amberi