pink

noun20

1. •
   a color made by mixing red and white

   • My new dress is a wonderful shade of pink.
2. •
   Magenta, the colour evoked by red and blue light when combined.
3. •
   Pale red.
4. •
   One of the colour balls used in snooker, coloured pink, with a value of 6 points.

   • Oh dear, he's left himself snookered behind the pink.
5. •
   Something, or a part of a thing, which is pink.
6. •
   Any of various flowers of that colour in the genus Dianthus, sometimes called carnations.

   • This garden in particular has a beautiful bed of pinks.
7. •
   A pink dye or pigment.
8. •
   A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of pink pigment.
9. •
   (slang) The vagina or vulva.
10. •
    Hunting pink; scarlet, as worn by hunters.

    • I had taken it for granted that there would be people ‘in pink’, but these enormous confident strangers overwhelmed me with the visible authenticity of their brick-red coats. — 1928
11. •
    (old-fashioned) A perfect example; excellence, perfection; the embodiment of some quality.

    • Your hat, madam, is the very pink of fashion.
12. •
    A huntsman.

    • The pinks stand about the inn-door lighting cigars and waiting to see us start, while their hacks are led up and down the market-place, on which the inn looks. — 1857
13. •
    A young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, before it becomes a smolt; a parr.
14. •
    A common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus0.
15. •
    (slang) An unlettered and uncultured, but relatively prosperous, member of the middle classes; compare Babbitt, bourgeoisie.
16. •
    (historical) Any of various lake pigments or dyes in yellow, yellowish green or brown shades, made with plant coloring and a metallic oxide base.

    • To make Dutch pink, boil the stems of woad in a solution of alum, and then mix the liquor with clay, marl, or chalk, which will become mixed with the colour of the decoction — 1816
17. •
    (no longer used) A small hole made by puncturing something, as with a rapier, dagger, or pinking iron.
18. •
    (no longer used) A small hole or puncture made by a sharp, slender instrument such as a rapier, poniard or dagger, or (by extension) a bullet; a stab.

    • At a great word she will her poynard draw, Looke for the pincke if once thou giue the lye. — 1601
19. •
    (no longer used) A small hole or eyelet punched in a garment for decoration, as with a pinking iron; a scallop.

    • small pinks, cuts or iagges in clothes — 1598
20. •
    (no longer used) A narrow boat.

adjective7

1. •
   Having a colour between red and white; pale red.
2. •
   (informal) Relating to homosexuals as a group within society.
3. •
   (informal) Relating to women or girls.
4. •
   By comparison to red (communist), supportive of socialist ideas but not actually socialist or communist.

   • The word "socialist" has so many connotations that it can cover almost anything from pink liberalism to red-red communism. — 1976
5. •
   Having conjunctivitis.
6. •
   Of a fox-hunter's jacket: scarlet.
7. •
   (no longer used) Half-shut; winking.

   • Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne! In thy vats our cares be drowned, With thy grapes our hairs be crowned. — 1606

verb9

1. •
   To become pink in color, to redden.

   • The woman’s pale skin pinked as she shook her head. “No. It’s out of my budget. Come on, Sammy” — 2014
2. •
   To turn (something) pink.

   • They are all nearly nude, pinked and bronzed by the sun. — 1961
3. •
   To turn (a topaz or other gemstone) pink by the application of heat.
4. •
   Of a motor car, to emit a high "pinking" noise, usually as a result of ill-set ignition timing for the fuel used (in a spark ignition engine).
5. •
   Of a musical instrument, to sound a very high-pitched, short note.

   • And then the record changed, a piano pinking high a Poulenc-like theme. — 1959
6. •
   To decorate a piece of clothing or fabric by adding holes or by scalloping the fringe.
7. •
   To prick with a sword.

   • ‘Pugh!’ says she, ‘you have pinked a man in a duel, that's all.’ — 1749
8. •
   To wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule.

   • “Young man, if you have no authority, let me speak to someone who has! Put me through to Mr. Berquist.” The stooge suddenly lost his smile and Jubal thought gleefully that he had at last pinked him. — 1961
9. •
   (no longer used) To wink; to blink.

   • A Hungry Fox that had got a Cock in his Eye, and could not tell how to come at him ; cast himself at his Length upon the Ground, and there he lay winking and pinking as if he had Sore Eyes. — 1692

noun1

1. •
   (slang, offensive) An operative of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.