Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A weasel (Mustela erminea) native to northern regions, having a black-tipped tail and dark brown fur that in winter changes to white.
- noun The commercially valuable white fur of this animal.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In heraldry, composed of four ermine spots: said of a cross so formed.
- To cover with or as with ermine.
- noun An Armenian.
- noun The stoat, Putorius erminea, a small, slender, short-legged carnivorous quadruped of the weasel family, Mustelidæ, and order Feræ, found throughout the northerly and cold temperate parts of the northern hemisphere.
- noun In entomology, one of several arctiid moths: so called by English collectors. The buff ermine is Arctia lubricipeda; the water-ermine is A. urticæ.
- noun The fur of the ermine, especially as prepared for ornamental purposes, by having the black of the tail inserted at regular intervals so that it contrasts with the pure white of the fur.
- noun Hence The office or dignity of a judge, and especially the perfect rectitude and fairness of mind essential to the judge's office: as, he kept his ermine unspotted.
- noun In heraldry, one of the furs, represented with its peculiar spots black on a while ground (argent, Spots sable).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To clothe with, or as with, ermine.
- noun (Zoöl.) A valuable fur-bearing animal of the genus Mustela (
M. erminea ), allied to the weasel; the stoat. It is found in the northern parts of Asia, Europe, and America. In summer it is brown, but in winter it becomes white, except the tip of the tail, which is always black. - noun The fur of the ermine, as prepared for ornamenting garments of royalty, etc., by having the tips of the tails, which are black, arranged at regular intervals throughout the white.
- noun By metonymy, the office or functions of a judge, whose state robe, lined with ermine, is emblematical of purity and honor without stain.
- noun (Her.) One of the furs. See
Fur (Her.) - noun (Zoöl.) a white moth with black spots (esp.
Yponomeuta padella of Europe); -- so called on account of the resemblance of its covering to the fur of the ermine; also applied to certain white bombycid moths of America.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
weasel , Mustela erminea, found in northern latitudes; its dark brown fur turns white in winter (apart from the black tip of the tail) - noun The white
fur of this animal - noun poetic A
symbol ofpurity - noun figuratively The
office of ajudge - noun heraldry A white
field with black spots - verb To
clothe with ermine
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the expensive white fur of the ermine
- noun mustelid of northern hemisphere in its white winter coat
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ermine.
Examples
-
I doubt you'll see me in ermine, I have no desire to be the Scarlet Jim Purnell .
Archive 2009-06-01 Dungeekin 2009
-
I doubt you'll see me in ermine, I have no desire to be the Scarlet Jim Purnell .
Brown to Fight On Despite Cabinet Resignations Dungeekin 2009
-
Comrade Turnbull had been banished to a labour camp known as the "House of Lords," where harsh and brutal metaphors are believed to be used, and where inmates, clad only in ermine, are forced to live on a diet of venison and claret.
Archive 2007-03-01 2007
-
Comrade Turnbull had been banished to a labour camp known as the "House of Lords," where harsh and brutal metaphors are believed to be used, and where inmates, clad only in ermine, are forced to live on a diet of venison and claret.
-
During said ceremony, Moon and his wife are wrapped in ermine robes and crowned by an Illinois Congressman.
-
When we think of the King at home we do not picture him in ermine robes, wearing a crown; we think of him as one of ourselves, as a man who might have been just a king, but who prefers to be an Englishman.
-
No greater contrast is possible than to go from a city under the sway of a proletarian dictatorship to a royal city where a king sits in ermine on an ancient throne.
-
This practice is still continued with regard to the ermine, which is spotted with black lamb's-skin.
The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus Caius Cornelius Tacitus
-
The white fur of the weasel (sometimes called the ermine) is used to make some of the most beautiful and expensive stoles that elegant and wealthy ladies wear.
"Say Fellows—" Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life's Big Issues Wade C. Smith
-
The naturalists recount that the ermine is a little beast that hath a most white skin; and that, when the hunters would chase him, they use this art to take him.
The Fourth Book. VI. Wherein Is Rehearsed the History of the Curious-Impertinent 1909
chained_bear commented on the word ermine
An animal of the weasel tribe (Mustela Erminea), an inhabitant of northern countries, called in England a stoat, whose fur is reddish brown in summer, but in winter (in northern regions) wholly white, except the tip of the tail, which is always black.
Also, a heraldic fur; white marked with black spots of a particular shape.
February 5, 2007
yarb commented on the word ermine
I love it! Who did that?
May 26, 2010
yarb commented on the word ermine
Thanks! I prefer the reversal.
May 26, 2010