crimson

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English

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Etymology

PIE word
*kʷŕ̥mis

Late Middle English cremesyn, from obsolete French cramoisin or Old Spanish cremesin, from Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz), from Classical Persian کرمست (kirmist), from Middle Persian; see Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš. Cognate with Sanskrit कृमिज (kṛmija). Doublet of kermes; also see carmine.

Pronunciation

Noun

crimson (countable and uncountable, plural crimsons)

  1. A deep, slightly bluish red.
    crimson:  

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Adjective

crimson (comparative more crimson, superlative most crimson)

  1. Having a deep red colour.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:
      Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
    • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast:
      Her crimson dress inflames grey corridors, or flaring in a sunshaft through high branches makes of the deep green shadows a greenness darker yet, and a darkness greener.
  2. Immodest. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Translations

Verb

crimson (third-person singular simple present crimsons, present participle crimsoning, simple past and past participle crimsoned)

  1. (intransitive) To become crimson or deep red; to blush.
    • 1841, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter XIII, in Night and Morning:
      Eugenie's quick apprehensions seized the foul thought. Her eyes flashed—her cheek crimsoned.
    • 1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Ring” in The Poetical Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, New York and Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Volume 2, p. 662,
      Father. Why do you look so gravely at the tower?
      Miram. I never saw it yet so all ablaze
      With creepers crimsoning to the pinnacles,
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC:
      Gerty MacDowell bent down her head and crimsoned at the idea of Cissy saying an unladylike thing like that out loud she'd be ashamed of her life to say, flushing a deep rosy red, and Edy Boardman said she was sure the gentleman opposite heard what she said. But not a pin cared Ciss.
  2. (transitive) To dye with crimson or deep red; to redden.
    • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
      Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,
      Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe.
    • 1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: C Roworth, , and published by T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 153:
      Her face was crimsoned over, and she exclaimed, in a voice of the greatest emotion, “Good God! Willoughby, what is the meaning of this? []
    • 1936, William Faulkner, chapter 5, in Absalom, Absalom!, New York: Modern Library, published 1951, page 138:
      [] that sheetless bed (that nuptial couch of love and grief) with the pale and bloody corpse in its patched and weathered gray crimsoning the bare mattress []

Translations

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