peach blossomn.adj.
/ˈpiːtʃ ˌblɒs(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈpitʃ ˌblɑs(ə)m/ A. n.
1. The blossom of the peach tree; a flower of this tree.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular fruit-tree or -plant > [noun] > trees or plants bearing stone fruit > peach-tree > blossom
peach blossom1664
peach bloom1824
1664 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense 63 in Sylva Grape Flowers, Almonds and Peach-blossoms.
1718 J. Quincy Pharmacopœia Officinalis 174 Peach-blossoms.—These are us'd only in a Syrup.
1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica xiv. 441 The Peach Blossom is a Flower of a pale red Colour, consisting of five Petals, which are broad and rounded at their Ends.
1820 R. Jameson Syst. Mineral. (ed. 3) I. 134 The rare blue variety is found..in Tellemark, in Norway, along with a hard peach-blossom coloured mineral named Thulite.
1833 F. A. Butler Jrnl. 30 Apr. (1835) II. 186 The dreary landscape was relieved by the..pale peach blossoms, and tiny white buds on the apple orchards.
1886 J. Ruskin Præterita II. viii. 265 [An orchard] which was gladdened..by flushes of almond and double peach blossom.
1936 E. Dark Return to Coolami ii. 16 The neglected orchard, foaming with pink peach blossom.
1992 A. Fisher Day Trips in Delmarva ii. 29 Extensive peach orchards..by then provided the main crop of southern Delaware (whose state flower is the peach blossom).
2. In full peach-blossom moth. A Eurasian woodland moth, Thyatira batis (family Thyatiridae), having olive-brown wings marked with pinkish-white spots.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Cymatophoridae, Polyplocidae, or Thyatiridae > thyatira batis (peach-blossom moth)
peach-blossom moth1775
1775 M. Harris Eng. Lepidoptera 13 Blossom, peach.
1819 G. Samouelle Entomologist's Compend. 250 Peach blossom moth.
1859 W. S. Coleman Our Woodlands 109 On the leaf of the Bramble feeds the caterpillar of..the Peach-blossom Moth.
1860 P. H. Gosse Romance Nat. Hist. 25 What is this approaching, with its ten patches of rosy white on its olive wings? The lovely ‘peach-blossom’, certainly.
1961 H. M. Edelstein & D. S. Fletcher South's Moths Brit. Isles (new ed.) I. 99 The Peach-Blossom (Thyatira batis Linn.).
B. adj. (attributive).
Usually with hyphen. Of the colour of peach blossom; a warm pink; rose-pink.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > red or redness > [adjective] > pale red or pink
incarnatea1533
fleshy1555
incarnation1562
pallet1565
peach1583
bepurfurate1584
blush1597
carnation1598
peachy1599
peach-coloured1600
pink-coloured1600
incarnadine1605
pink1607
blush-coloured1626
blushy1626
gridelin1652
carnationeda1658
pinky1661
carneous1673
peach blossom1702
flesh-coloured1703
flesh-colour1711
mushroom-coloured1770
salmon-coloured1776
pinkish1785
salmon1786
blush-tinted1818
flesh-red1819
naturelle1873
flesh-pink1882
lilac-pink1882
pinksome1913
nude1922
magnolia-pink1931
salmony1935
magnolia1963
1702 London Gaz. No. 3835/4 Lin'd with a Peach-Blossom Silk.
1819 W. Brande Man. Chem. 275 Arseniate of cobalt, or peachblossom cobalt ore.
1855 Harper's Mag. July 254/1 Poor Goldsmith's innocent dandyisms, and the story of his peach-blossom coat, are almost proverbial.
1901 Daily News 19 Jan. 6/7 A soft, pale tone of mauve, almost peach-blossom colour.
a1941 V. Woolf Duchess & Jeweller in Haunted House (1944) 86 There they lay in the glow of the peach-blossom taffeta. Ten pearls.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1664