pink1
/pɪŋk
/adjective
1Of a colour intermediate between red and white, as of coral or salmon: bright pink lipstick her face was pink with embarrassment...
- Remove the pink corals from the white scallops then wrap strips of smoked salmon round the sides of the scallops.
- The skin should be smooth and have a white or light pink colour.
- Some of the later flowering hybrids are more unusual in their colour with pink trumpets and white petals.
Synonyms
rosy, rose, rose-coloured, rosé, pale red, salmon, salmon-pink, shell-pink;
flesh-coloured, flushed, blushing
1.1(Of wine) rosé.The good news is that just as still pink wines have become respectable over the past decade, slowly so has rosé champagne, with more care taken over its production....
- Spain also takes pink wines seriously - so seriously that it has at least two names for them, depending on the intensity of the colour.
- Maybe it wasn't all pink champagne and roses last night after all.
2 informal, often derogatory Having or showing left-wing tendencies: pink politicians...
- However, the pink revolution failed with the victory of a hardliner.
3Of or associated with homosexuals: a boom in the pink economy the pink pound...
- Perhaps more importantly, the realisation that both the pink pound and pocket money were untapped, encouraged the wave of celebrity media around today.
- There is a massive wedding market in the Borders and a lot of hotels are going to try and cash in on the pink pound.
- I'm fed up with this convenient courting of the pink pound - I don't want to be equal just because I'm financially valuable!
noun
1 [mass noun] Pink colour, pigment, or material: soft pastel shades of pink and blue...
- Becca's room, which the girl had proudly shown him, was sort of the same shade, but in pink.
- Similar pigments occur in pink, red, and, surprisingly, blue petals.
- The best bets for backing are highlighted blue and for laying in pink.
1.1 (also hunting pink) The scarlet jacket worn by fox-hunters or the material from which this is made.More than 1,200 of them including farmers, gamekeepers and riders in hunting pink warned that their action was the start of a ‘summer of discontent’ to highlight opposition in the countryside to the threatened ban....
- Just when hunting pink is to be outlawed, cagoule red is being given the green light today, with armies of walkers now allowed to wander across ‘private’ property
- Banning battery farming would do a lot more good than banning hunting, but there isn't the emotional punch of watching Otis cry because he'll have to donate his hunting pink to Oxfam.
1.2 [count noun] The pink ball in snooker.He went 46-7 ahead before Whyte made a 14 break only for Milner to respond with his tenth red and a pink then laid a snooker....
- Coulson played a loose shot and Shipley gained the necessary points from a snooker and was left an easy pink and snooker after another Coulson error.
- The Whirlwind looked set to secure a comfortable victory in Glasgow at 4-2 up before he missed a pink to let Ian McCulloch in.
1.3 informal Rosé wine.Think and drink fashionable pink this season: rosé wines are making a comeback....
- It was certainly a night of pink, hearts, roses and fun and it was good to see the ladies of the YWCA in such great form.
2 (the pink of) The best condition or degree: the economy is not in the pink of health...
- It is everybody's knowledge that the construction sector is not in the pink of health.
- An unseen intruder tries to pull the plug on his life-support system but the guy is a lousy assassin - instead of dying, Alexander wakes up, attractive, rumpled and pretty much in the pink of physical health.
- You will be in the pink of health and will experience an increase in wealth.
Synonyms
prime, perfection, best, finest, top form, height, highest level, upper limit, limit;
utmost, peak of perfection, uttermost, greatest, extreme, extremity, ceiling;
epitome, apex, zenith, acme, bloom, blossoming, flowering, full flowering;
Latin ne plus ultra
verb
1 [no object] Become pink: Cheryl’s cheeks pinked with sudden excitement...
- Finally, Eve realized she was staring, and her cheeks pinked.
2 [with object] Australian /NZ Shear (a sheep) so closely that the colour of the skin is visible: McFowler pinked every sheep and never drew blood
Phrases
in the pink
turn (or go) pink
Derivatives
pinkish
/ adjective ...- Those are the pinkish reddish bits in the four corners.
- The peel is orange, the flesh is pinkish to rosy orange, and the flavor is a little sweeter than that of the regular navel.
- It took twenty minutes to put on some perfume and a light pinkish / reddish lipstick.
pinkly
- When she opened the cupboard, Alvin saw the inch-high Tyrannosaurus erect and gaping pinkly among the mugs.
- His hands were broad and strong with fine, long fingers and, like me, he baked a nut brown under the summer sun until his fingernails glowed pinkly against his skin.
- Almost constantly, the long tongue would loll pinkly from his jaws and lap at the bare, shiny patches of burnt skin that stretched across his torso and over one forearm.
pinkness
- Lightning was blazing the sky with colour, making the clouds glow with an evil pinkness.
- My cheeks are flushed as I gasp for air, and their rosy pinkness glows like a sunrise.
- On one hand the head-to-toe pinkness is terribly cute, but it serves no practical purpose at this age, does it?
Origin
Mid 17th century: from pink2, the early use of the adjective being to describe the colour of the flowers of this plant.
A pink (Dianthus) is a plant with sweet-smelling flowers which are usually various shades of pink, purple, or white. The use of pink for the colour beloved by little girls actually comes from the flower, rather than the other way round. Similarly, several other languages use the rose as their source for the colour, and since the early 20th century fuchsia (named after the 16th-century German botanist Leonhart Fuchs) has been used for a distinctive shade of deep pink. Shakespeare uses the pink flower to signify the supreme example of something in Romeo and Juliet: ‘I am the very pink of courtesy.’ Here he was probably making a pun on the expression the flower of, meaning ‘the finest part or example’. This Shakespearean phrase led to the development of the expression in the pink of condition, which by the early 18th century was shortened to simply in the pink ‘in very good health and spirits’. The plant name appeared in the mid 16th century, but its origin is not known for certain. It may be short for pink eye ‘small or half-shut eye’, which would make the name like its French equivalent oeillet, which means ‘little eye’. Pink in the sense of the sort of sound an engine makes when cooling dates only from the early 20th century and imitates the sound.
Rhymes
pink2
/pɪŋk/noun
A herbaceous Eurasian plant with sweet-smelling pink or white flowers and slender, typically grey-green leaves.
- Genus Dianthus, family Caryophyllaceae (the pink family). This family includes the campions, chickweeds, stitchworts, and the cultivated carnations. See also clove1 (sense 3).
- A brief overview of the different characteristics of carnations, pinks, and sweet Williams will perhaps help you to make wise choices for your garden.
- These included lilacs, lindens, Virginia creeper, marigolds, sunflowers, honeysuckle, pinks, and daisies.
Origin
Late16th century: perhaps short for pink eye, literally 'small or half-shut eye'; compare with the synonymous French word oeillet, literally 'little eye'.
pink3
/pɪŋk/verb [with object]
1Cut a scalloped or zigzag edge on: (as adjective pinked) a bonnet with pinked edging...
- Ornamental gauntlets with swirling embroidery and pinked edges were patented by F. Farrant.
- Fancier edge stitches could include binding with Lycra, blanket stitch, pinking, overcast with the serger, or turning under and stitching.
1.1Wound or nick (someone) slightly with a weapon or missile: Bernstein pinked him in the arm
2 archaic Decorate: April pinked the earth with flowers
Origin
Early 16th century (in the sense 'pierce or nick slightly'): compare with Low German pinken 'strike, peck'.
pink4
/pɪŋk/noun historical
A small square-rigged sailing ship, typically with a narrow, overhanging stern.A pink was a sailing ship with a narrow stern, originally small and flat-bottomed.
Origin
Late 15th century: from Middle Dutch pin(c)ke, of unknown ultimate origin; compare with Spanish pinque and Italian pinco.
pink5
/pɪŋk/verb [no object] British
(Of a vehicle engine) make a series of rattling sounds as a result of over-rapid combustion of the fuel-air mixture in the cylinders: the car was inclined to pink slightly in accelerating from a low engine speed...
- Eventually I gave up trying to accelerate hard because the engine started pinking, which seemed to get worse as time went by, so maybe it was running below par.
- This is known as pinking, and can be identified by a knocking sound coming from the engine.
- Between lines, Tioxide is not denying that TC30 could cause pinking but considers it is Hydropolymer's problem not ours’.
Origin
Early 20th century: imitative.
pink6
/pɪŋk/noun [mass noun] dated
A yellowish lake pigment made by combining vegetable colouring matter with a white base.
Origin
Mid 17th century: of unknown origin.
- intermeddle
- intermediacy
- intermedial
- intermediary
- intermediate
- intermediate frequency
- intermediate host
- intermediately
- intermediateness
- intermediate technology
- intermediation
- intermediator
- intermedin
- intermedium
- interment
- intermesh
- intermezzo
- interminable
- interminableness
- interminably
- intermingle
- intermission
- intermit
- intermittence
- intermittency