Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A vivid red to reddish orange.
  • adjective Of a vivid red to reddish orange.
  • transitive verb To color or dye (something) in the hue vermilion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The kermes- or cochineal-insect; also, the product of cochineal; worm-dye.
  • noun The red sulphid of mercury, or the mineral cinnabar, occurring in nature of a red-brown to a carmine-red color; also, a pigment formerly made by grinding selected pieces of native cinnabar, but now made artificially.
  • noun A color such as that of the above pigment; a beautiful brilliant red color.
  • noun A cotton cloth dyed with vermilion.
  • noun Same as vermeil, 4.
  • Of the color of vermilion; of the brilliant pure-red color common in the bloom of the single scarlet geranium: as, a vermilion dye.
  • To color with or as with vermilion; dye red; cover or suffuse with a bright red.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) A bright red pigment consisting of mercuric sulphide, obtained either from the mineral cinnabar or artificially. It has a fine red color, and is much used in coloring sealing wax, in printing, etc.
  • noun Hence, a red color like the pigment; a lively and brilliant red.
  • transitive verb To color with vermilion, or as if with vermilion; to dye red; to cover with a delicate red.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A vivid red synthetic pigment made of mercury sulfide.
  • noun A vivid red or slightly orange colour.
  • noun A type of red dye worn in the parting of the hair by married Hindu women.
  • noun A red skin of the lip or its border with the skin of the face.
  • adjective Having a brilliant red colour.
  • adjective Having the color of the vermilion dye.
  • verb transitive To color or paint vermilion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb color vermilion
  • noun a variable color that is vivid red but sometimes with an orange tinge
  • adjective of a vivid red to reddish-orange color

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English vermelion, from Old French vermeillon, from vermeil; see vermeil.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French vermeil ("vermilion"), from Latin vermiculus ("little worm"), the coccus Indicus, from vermis ("worm").

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Examples

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  • "In amazon costume, hard hat, jackboots cockspurred, vermilion waistcoat, fawn musketeer gauntlets with braided drums, long train held up and hunting crop with which she strikes her welt constantly."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 15

    February 8, 2007

  • also see vermillion.

    November 17, 2007

  • "I wanted to know the original spelling of the name Jean. I learned it when I received a letter from a nephew of Mme de Villeparisis who signs himself—as he was christened, as he figures in the Almanach de Gotha—Jehan de Villeparisis, with the same handsome, superfluous, heraldic h that we admire, illuminated in vermilion or ultramarine, in a Book of Hours or in a stained-glass window."

    --The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 39 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    December 25, 2009

  • Usage note in comment on mercuric sulfide and kermes, and on wormberry.

    Also, "Those who turned to the Bible to reconcile the controversy were disappointed. Although the Vulgate used the word <i>vermilion</i>, or 'little worm,' to describe the color produced by grain, lending credence to the idea that the dyestuff had animal origins, the Bible made no definite pronouncements either way."

    Amy Butler Greenfield, <i>A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire</i> (New York: Harper Collins, 2005), 127.

    October 4, 2017