Sekirov Dictionary

amber

/ˈæm.bəː/

noun 7
verb 4
adjective 1
forms 5
phrases 3

noun7

•
a clear yellow or brown stone used in jewelry, made from tree resin that became hard millions of years ago
- With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery. — 1590
•
(UK, Commonwealth) The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop when safe to do so. See also yellow light.
- While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s. — 1974
•
Hesitance to proceed, or limited approval to proceed; an amber light.
- […] in response to the actions I just described, business was given the green light, and now we seem to be on amber. — 1973
A yellow-orange colour.
•
The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
- For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature. — 2007
•
(no longer used) Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
- Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale. — 1526
(no longer used) Formerly thought to be the product of a plant.

verb4

•
(literary, rare) To cause to take on the yellow colour of amber.
- For purple mountains majesty; for amber waves of grain. — 1885
•
(literary, rare) To take on the yellow colour of amber.
- 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— — 2009
(rare) To preserve in amber.
(rare) To perfume or flavour with ambergris.

adjective1

•
Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of most amber.
- 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. — 2006

forms

ambered · ambering · ambers · more amber · most amber

Phrases with amber

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