| 释义 |
▪ I. pink, n.1 Now chiefly Hist.|pɪŋk|
Forms: 5–7 pinck, 6 pyncke, 6–7 pin(c)ke, 7 pynke, 6– pink.
[app. a. MDu. pincke, pinke, name of a small sea-going ship, also a fishing-boat (1477–8 in Verw. & Verdam), in Kilian pinck, mod.Du. pink; in MLG., LG., and mod.Ger. pinke; also F. pinque (1690 in Furetière, pinquet 1634 in Hatz.-Darm.), It. pinco: ulterior origin unknown (Jal).]
A sailing vessel; orig. one of small size used for coasting and fishing, described as flat-bottomed and having bulging sides; in the 17th and 18th c. applied to ships of considerable size, esp. war-ships; see also quot. 1794. A common characteristic in later times appears to have been a narrow stern: cf. pink-stern, -sterned in b.
The description of the Dutch pinks and that of the pinks of the Mediterranean differ considerably: see the quots.
† sword pink, one provided with lee-boards [Du. zwaard (sweerd Kilian) a lee-board].
1471Sc. Acts Jas. III (1814) II. 100/2 Þat certain lordes..& burowis ger mak or get Schippis buschis & vþer gret pynk botes witht nettes & al abilȝementes ganing þarfor for fysching. 1545St. Papers Hen. VIII, I. 792 They mete also three Flemishe pynckes, laden with pouderd codde. 1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 153 In Winter and rough wether, small bootes and lytle pinkes forsake the seas. 1573–80Baret Alv. P 380 A Pinke, a little ship. 1601J. Reymor Obs. Dutch Fishing in Phenix (1721) I. 228 Above 1000 Sail of Pinks, Welboats, Dogger boats take Cod, Ling, and other Fish there. 1616Capt. Smith Descr. New Eng. 12 The poore Hollanders..hauing 2 or 3000 Busses, Flat bottomes, Sword pinks, Todes, and such like. 1688Lond. Gaz. No. 2352/3 The Pink lost her Top-mast and Sprit-sail, had her Main-Yard broke, and her Hull and Rigging very much torn. 1710J. Harris Lex. Techn. II. s.v., The Bends and Ribs compassing so as that her Sides buldge out very much; wherefore these Pinks are difficult to be boarded. They are often used for Store-Ships, and Hospital-Ships, in the Fleet. 1742Fielding Jos. Andrews ii. xvii, The villains..put me, a man, and a boy, into a little bad pink, in which..we at last made Falmouth. 1748Anson's Voy. i. ii. 14 The two Victuallers were Pinks,..of about four hundred, and..two hundred tons burthen. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Pink, a name given to a ship with a very narrow stern; whence all vessels..whose sterns are fashioned in this manner, are called pink-sterned. 1787Earl Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. II. 367, I have determined to dispatch a pink from Scheveling. 1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 236 Pinks are mediterranean-vessels, and differ from the Xebec only in being more lofty, and not sharp in the bottom, as they are vessels of burthen. They have long narrow sterns, and three masts, carrying latteen-sails. 1823Scott Peveril xviii, Suppose me..detained in harbour by a revenue pink. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Pink, a ship with a very narrow stern, having a small square part above. The shape is of old date, but continued, esp. by the Danes, for the advantage of the quarter-guns, by the ship's being contracted abaft.
fig.a1625Fletcher Woman's Prize ii. vi, This pinck, this painted foist, this cockle-boat, To hang her fights out, and defie me, friends, A well known man of war.
b. attrib. and Comb., as pink-boat (see quot. 1471 above), pink-rigged adj.; pink-snow, a snow resembling a pink in build; pink-stern, a stern like that of a pink; hence, a small vessel having a narrow stern; so pink-sterned a. (cf. 1769 above).
1711W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 60 For round or pink-stern'd Ships. 1722Forster in Phil. Trans. XXXII. 100 A small Pink-Snow, called the Richard and Elizabeth. 1759Ann. Reg. 64/2 A French privateer..fell in with an English brig, pink-stern about 100 tons burthen. 1808A. Parsons Trav. viii. 169 The galliote which the Eagle had taken..is built forward like a London wherry, with a pink or lute stern. 1861L. L. Noble Icebergs 77 A pink-sterned schooner, of only sixty-five tons. Ibid. 89 At eight o'clock, our brave little pink-stern was lying at anchor in her haven. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Flute, or Fluyt, a pink-rigged fly-boat. Ibid., Pinkstern, a very narrow boat on the Severn. 1890in Haswell Maister (1895) 112 In 1833..I sailed in the well-known old Liberty and Property—a collier with ‘pink’ stern; the last of her race, I believe.
▪ II. pink, n.2, penk|pɪŋk, pɛŋk|
Forms: α. 5– penk, 7 penck, penke; also 8–9 pank. β. 7 pinck, 7– pink.
[Origin obscure: cf. dial. Ger. pink(e fem., (1) minnow, (2) small salmon, (3) a kind of eel. The historical Eng. form was penk, for which pink began to appear in 17th c., and has been adopted in fishery statutes in sense 2.
It has no connexion with pink the flower, nor with pink the colour, as erroneously assumed by some.]
1. A minnow. Now dial.
αa1490Botoner Itin. (1778) 358 Yn Wye-water sunt..penkys. 1651–3T. Barker Art of Angling 4 The angling with a Menow, called in some places Pencks [ed. 1820, Pincks]. 1653Walton Angler iv. 93 With a Worm, or a Minnow (which some call a Penke). 1787Grose Provinc. Gloss., Pank, or Pink, a minnow. N. 1828T. C. Croker Fairy Leg. II. 57 Penk or Pink [is] the name of the little fish more commonly called in England minnow. 1891A. Lang in Longm. Mag. Aug. 446 An artificial penk.
βa1687Cotton Angler's Ballad ii. Poems (1689) 76 And full well you may think, If you troll with a Pink, One [fishing-rod] too weak will be apt to miscarry. 1755Johnson, Pink..6. A fish; the minnow. 1787,1828[see α]. 1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Pink,..the Minnow. [E.D.D. cites it also from Sheffield, Derbysh., Leicester, Notts, Cheshire, & Warwicksh.]
2. a. A young salmon before it becomes a smolt; a samlet, parr.
1828Sporting Mag. XXII. 26 There are a great number of samlets or pinks. 1861Act. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 109 §4 All migratory fish of the genus salmon, whether known by the names..salmon..parr, spawn, pink, last spring, hepper, last-brood,..or by any other local name. 1886St. Nicholas Aug. 740/2 Presently the alevin grows into the fry, or pink, which is an absurd little fish about an inch long, goggle-eyed, and with dark bars on its sides.
b. A young grayling.
1901H. A. Rolt Grayling Fishing in S. Country Streams i. 12 A one-year-old grayling is called a ‘pink’, and has neither spots nor lateral lines which can be observed. 1939W. C. Platts Grayling Fishing vi. 60 Rolt says that a one-year-old grayling is called a ‘pink’, and a two-year-old a ‘shut’ or ‘shote’ grayling... I have rarely come across these terms in general use. 1952F. White Good Eng. Food i. iv. 55 The principal grayling rivers..are..the Teme (where yearling fish are termed ‘pinks’ and second year fish ‘shutts’ or ‘shots’ or ‘sheets’) [etc.].
c. = pink salmon s.v. pink n.4 and a.1 C. c.
1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 11 Mar. 19/41 The canneries announced their intention of packing practically no pinks or chums this season. 1935W. M. Halliday Potlatch & Totem 155 After the close of the sockeye season, what are commonly known as humpback salmon were caught; these are the fish which are now classed under the technical name of ‘pinks’. 1965A. J. McClane Standard Fishing Encycl. 681/2 The ocean and Puget Sound sport fisheries take many pinks, but it is the commercial effort that accounts for the greatest take.
▪ III. pink, n.3|pɪŋk|
[f. pink v.1, q.v. for Forms.]
†1. A hole or eyelet punched in a garment for decorative purposes; also, scalloping done for the same purpose: cf. pinking vbl. n.1, pinking-iron.
1512Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IV. 215 Item,..for iiij⊇ powdringis and pinkis to the sam goune,..xij s. 1598Florio, Tagliuzzi, small pinks, cuts or iagges in clothes. 1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. iv, Is this pinke of equall proportion to this cut? 1632― Magn. Lady iii. iv, You had rather have An ulcer in your body, than a pink More in your clothes.
†2. A stab with a poniard, rapier, etc. Obs.
1601Weever Mirr. Mart. C j, At a great word she will her poynard draw, Looke for the pincke if once thou giue the lye. 1638Ford Lady's Trial iii. i, The fellow's a shrewd fellow at a pink.
b. A shot-wound.
1885Pall Mall G. 13 May 4/1 He is spotted with marks of stabs and revolver ‘pinks’, and he takes all his wounds quite as matter of course.
▪ IV. pink, n.4 and a.1
Forms: 6 pynke, 6–7 pinck(e, pinke, 7– pink.
[Etymology obscure. By some conjectured to be named from its ‘pinked’ or jagged petals; but there is no evidence that pink v. had the sense ‘to cut or scallop the edges (of garments)’ in the 16th c., or indeed before the 19th c. Others would connect the name with pink eye, small eye, comparing the Fr. name œillet, dim. of œil eye, and med.L. Ocellus, dim. of oculus eye.]
A. n.
I.
1. a. The general name of various species of Dianthus (family Caryophyllaceæ), esp. of D. plumarius, a favourite garden plant, a native of Eastern Europe, with very numerous varieties having pure white, pink, crimson, and variegated sweet-smelling flowers.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 96 Herbes, branches, and flowers,..Pinkes of all sorts. 1578Lyte Dodoens ii. vii. 155 The Pynkes, and small feathered Gillofers, are like to the double or cloaue Gillofers,..sauing they be single and a great deale smaller. Ibid. 156 Called in Englishe by diuers names, as Pynkes, Soppes in wine, feathered Gillofers, and small Honesties. 1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. i. 272 I'le lay me downe vpon a banke of Pinkes. 1662Pepys Diary 29 May, To the old Spring Garden,..the wenches gathered pinks. 1779Sheridan Critic ii. ii, Sweet-william and sweet marjoram—and all The tribe of single and of double pinks. 1847L. Hunt Men, Women, & B. I. ix. 159 A highly respectable individual..clean as a pink, and dull as a pike-staff. 1870Morris Earthly Par. I. ii. 559 Starry pinks for garlands meet.
transf.1885T. Mozley Remin. Towns, etc. II. 339 Those blue eyes and that mixture of pinks and lilies that men, and women too, admire or quiz, as they are disposed.
b. Applied with qualifying words to other species of Dianthus, and to other plants allied to or resembling the pink; e.g.
Carolina pink = pinkroot: cf. Carolina; China or Chinese pink, Dianthus chinensis: see China n.1 2 b; clove pink, D. Caryophyllus: see clove n.2 6; Deptford pink, D. Armeria; fire or ground pink, Silene virginica; see fire n. II. 5 b; Indian pink = China pink; also applied to some West Indian and N. American species of Ipomœa; also = pinkroot; † jagged pink, Ragged Robin, Lychnis Flos-cuculi; maiden, maidenly, or meadow pink, Dianthus deltoides: see maiden n. 10 b; Maryland pink = Carolina pink; old maid's pink, Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis (Cent. Dict. 1890); pheasant's eye pink = pheasant's eye 3; sea-pink, (a) Thrift, Statice Armeria; † (b) Cerastium repens; Spanish pink, D. hispanicus; swamp pink, Azalea viscosa; wild pink, any wild species of Dianthus; in U.S. applied to Silene pennsylvanica and S. virginica (= ground pink).
1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), Pink Root,..also known as the *Carolina Pink.
1741Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 361 The little Blue, the *China or Indian Pink.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VI. 9/1 The Chinensis, *Chinese, or Indian pink.
1837Penny Cycl. VIII. 475/2 D[ianthus] Caryophyllus, or the *Clove Pink. 1866Moore in Brande & Cox Dict. Sc., etc. II. 906/2 What is called a Clove Pink is Dianthus caryophyllus, the source of the Carnation and Picotee. [1597Gerarde Herbal ii. clxxiii. 476 A Wilde creeping Pinke, which groweth in our pastures neere about London..but especially in the great field next to Detford, by the path side as you go from Redriffe to Greenewich.]
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 205 May... Span. Pinks, *Deptford Pinks.
1831J. Davies Manual Mat. Med. 447 *Ground pink. Silene virginiana.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 219 September... *Indian Pinks, æthiopick Apples. 1741–97[see China, Chinese pink above]. 1866Treas. Bot. s.v. Spigelia, The Pink-root, Worm-grass, or Indian-pink of the shops is the produce of S. marilandica.
1573Baret Alv. P 349 The *iagged Pinkes, Vetonica Altilis minor..Dodon.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., The little creeping pink, with one flower on every stalk, called by many the *maiden-pink.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. clxxiii. 477 Caryophyllus Virgineus, *Maidenly Pinkes.
1866Treas. Bot. 891 Maiden or *Meadow Pink.
1733Miller Gard. Dict., Statice, Thrift or *Sea Pink. 1759Ibid. s.v. Cerastium, Hoary creeping Mouse-ear, by some called Sea Pink. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xviii. (1858) 397 Beds of thrift, with its gay flowers the sea-pinks. 1892H. Hutchinson Fairway Isl. 97 Here and there a bunch of dead sea-pink.
1664*Spanish Pink [see Deptford Pink above]. 1884Miller Plant-n., Spanish Pink, Dianthus hispanicus.
1898Atlantic Monthly LXXXII. 499/1 The familiar sweet-scented white azalea.., the ‘*swamp pink’ of my boyhood.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., The wild sweet-william, or common *wild pink. 1814Wordsw. Excursion vi. Poems (1888) 497/2 The wild pink crowns the garden-wall. 1882Garden 28 Oct. 375/2 S. pennsylvanica, or Wild Pink, as it is popularly called, with pink flowers.
c. Locally applied to the Cuckoo-flower or Lady's Smock, Cardamine pratensis.
1818Hogg Brownie of B. xi, Enough to make the pinks an' ewe gowan blush to the very lip.
2. fig.
a. The ‘flower’, or finest example of excellence; the embodied perfection (of some good quality).
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. iv. 61 Mer. Nay, I am the very pinck of curtesie. Rom. Pinke for flower. 1621Fletcher Pilgrim i. ii, This is the prettiest pilgrim—The pinck of pilgrims. 1711Steele Spect. No. 140 ⁋10 Ladies,..the very Pinks of Good-breeding. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. i. i, Setting off her pretty monster as the very pink of perfection. 1813Moore Post-bag viii. 4 Come to our Fête, and show again That pea-green coat, thou pink of men! 1825–9Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor III. xxii. 398, I have been admiring your cupboards; they are the very pink of elegance. 1893Baring-Gould Cheap Jack Z. i. 20 The pink and paragon of propriety.
b. The most perfect condition or degree of something; the height, extreme. Also freq. with ellipse of of condition, of health, etc. colloq.
1767G. S. Carey Hills of Hybla 20 Behold her sailing in the pink of taste, Trump'd up with powder, frippery and paste. a1821Keats Castle Builder in Poetical Wks. (1907) 298 Let me think About my room,—I'll have it in the pink; It should be rich and sombre. 1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1872) 173 In the very pink of the mode. 1845Dickens Let. 18 Mar. (1977) IV. 282 Of all the picturesque abominations in the World, commend me to Fondi. It is the very pink of hideousness and squalid misery. 1893Vizetelly Glances Back I. xiii. 255 [He] got himself up in the very pink of fashion. 1905Kynoch Jrnl. Oct.–Dec. 201 Makers may despatch explosives from the factory in the pink of condition. 1914Isle of Man Weekly Times 21 Nov. 7/5 He says that he is ‘in the pink’. 1916C. Winchester Flying Men 193, I saw a couple of R.F.C. officers..the other day. They looked ‘in the pink’. 1923Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xi. 115 ‘Oh, hallo!’ I said. ‘Going strong?’ ‘I am in excellent health, I thank you. And you?’ ‘In the pink. Just been over to America.’ 1929J. B. Priestley Good Companions ii. vii. 453, I am writing these lines to say I am still in the pink and hoping you are the same. 1937A. Huxley Let. 25 Feb. (1969) 415 Quant à moi, I was in the pink until about a week ago. 1950[see coin v.1 5 d]. 1973‘P. Malloch’ Kickback vi. 37 Gilchrist shook hands. ‘O.K. How about you?’ ‘In the pink,’ Campbell said. 1976Dexter & Makins Testkill 129 A young Alsatian in the pink of condition.
c. A beauty; an exquisite, a smart person, one of the élite. ? Obs.
1602Breton Merry Wonders B iij, He had a pretty pincke to his own wedded wife. 1821Sporting Mag. IX. 27 A new white upper tog, that would have given a sporting appearance to a pink of Regent-street. 1827Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administr. (1837) I. 55 His Vice runs into the contrary extreme. He is a Pink, an Exquisite.
3. attrib. or as adj. Exquisite; smart, ‘swell’. Now only U.S. colloq. or slang.
1598Marston Pygmal. iii. 149 For to perfume her rare perfection With some sweet-smelling pinck Epitheton. 1818Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 42 It was Lady Cork's ‘Pink night’, the rendezvous of the fashionable exclusives.
4. Comb. (in sense 1), as pink growing n., pink-like adj.; pink-coloured a., of the colour of the pink; having a pink colour.
1681T. Jordan London's Joy B iv, A Mantle of pink colour'd sarsnet, fringed with Gold. 17..Moore Trav. II. xc. (Jod.), The dancers..were dressed in white silk flounced with pink-coloured ribbands. 1807J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 412 Little pink-like plants. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 244 Lending his willing aid in waiting and entertaining on fair-days and market-days, at pink-feasts and melon-feasts. 1845Florist's Jrnl. Sept. 186 The reminiscences of pink-growing are always most interesting to us.
II. n. use of B.
5. a. A light or pale red colour with a slight purple tinge. (See also pink n.5)
[1828Webster, Pink, a color used by painters; from the color of the flower.] 1846Worcester, Pink,..the usual color of the flower; a light crimson. 1874A. O'Shaughnessy Music & Moonlight, Ode to New Age 183 Nay, by yon pink of slowly parting lips, A long rim near the dawn. 1892Speaker 3 Sept. 289/2 Wild rose..falling in close exquisite veils of pink and green down to the daisied grass.
b. With defining word prefixed to denote a particular shade: see B. 1 b.
1893F. F. Moore I Forbid Banns (1899) 88 The mellow crimson faded into shell-pink. 1900Daily News 28 Apr. 6/6 A little prawn-pink is introduced under the embroidery. 1900G. Swift Somerley 101 Soft cheeks with a sort of sunrise-pink on them—not that unhealthy, doll-like shell-pink.
c. As a colour commonly used on maps to indicate a British colony or dominion. Cf. red n.1 1 e.
1913C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. ii. xv. 407 She said half the world was composed of fools which accounted for the preponderation—I mean preponderance—of pink on the map.
6. a. Scarlet when worn by fox-hunters; a scarlet hunting-coat, or the cloth of which it is made.
1834Disraeli Corr. w. Sister 15 Feb., Although not in pink, [I] was the best mounted man in the field. 1860R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs l. (1883) 143 A sect..Who blindly follow, clad in coats of pink, A beast whose nature is to run and stink. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. i, They are the hunting set, and come in with pea-coats over their pinks. 1889Daily News 12 Nov. 5/2 Scarlet, conventionally known as ‘pink’, will, he trusts, last as long as fox-hunting. 1900Ibid. 24 Feb. 6/7 A short coat in hunting pink.
b. transf. A man in ‘pink’; a fox-hunter.
1828Sporting Mag. XXI. 323 Even in the strictest College a pink could unmolested walk across the Court. 1840Shairp in W. Knight Shairp & Friends (1888) 44, I see the pinks flocking out to the ‘meets’. 1869E. Farmer Scrap Bk. (ed. 6) 91 Pinks call for their second [horse] to finish the run.
7. As the name of varieties of the potato. Cf. pink-eye 1.
1853Trans. Mich. Agric. Soc. V. 208 Some of the more approved kinds are..the White, Red, and Strawberry Pinks. 1861Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 589 The Lancashire Pink is also a good potato, and is much cultivated in the neighbourhood of Liverpool.
8. A pink ball in snooker and some related games.
1910Encycl. Brit. III. 938/2 It is also permitted in some rooms to take blacks and pinks alternately without pocketing a coloured ball between the strokes. 1935Encycl. Sports 570/1 Black is on the billiard spot: pink on the centre line of the table, touching the apex ball of the pyramid. 1976Milton Keynes Express 28 May 55/4 He played the cue ball the full length of the table, swerving past the green, back up the table, not only to hit the red but to pot it, plus the black, yellow, green, brown, blue and but for a miss on the pink would have cleared the table to win the frame. 1978Guardian 7 Feb. 20/6 Pulman twice missed eminently possible pinks, with position on the black there for the taking.
9. U.S. Blacks' slang. A white-skinned person. Also Comb., as pink-chaser (see quot. 1970).
1926C. Van Vechten Nigger Heaven i. ix. 157 Funny thing about those pink-chasers the ofays never seem to have any use for them. 1945L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 16/1 Pink, pretty white girl. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 91 Pink chasers, black people who deliberately cultivate friendships with white people. 1973‘Trevanian’ Loo Sanction (1974) 159 P'tit Noel shrugged. ‘All pinks sound alike.’
10. A person whose politics are left of centre, but closer to the centre than those of a ‘red’; a radical; a liberal socialist. colloq. Cf. parlour pink s.v. parlour 2 f.
1927U. Sinclair Oil! xiii. 313 He's nuts on this red⁓hunting business, and the pinks are worse than the reds, he says. 1943K. Tennant Ride on Stranger xx. 225 Wilmot electorate covered an area of residential water⁓side suburbs inhabited less by Reds than by Pinks of all shades and hues. 1956A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Att. i. iv. 115 Less-informed business friends spoke to Robin of intellectuals as communists or pinks. 1968Punch 17 July 95/3 The Tory Party..now clutches pinks, finks and crumb-bums to its shrivelled teats. 1976Scott & Koski Walk-In (1977) xxi. 140 His college professors..thought that the boy was perhaps slightly leftish but no more so than most of the Pinks over at State. 1978‘R. Cassilis’ Winding Sheet ii. xii. 109 One of those old-fashioned egalitarians, like the pompous Pinks who had once been the backbone of the..Labour Party.
11. A pink gin; the bitters in this drink.
1942G. Hackforth-Jones One-One-One xxii. 203 ‘Eeyore’ Smith absent-mindedly added a dash of ‘pink’ to his evening aperitif. 1969G. Greene Trav. with my Aunt i. xx. 213 ‘Another double’, ‘Pint of best bitter’, ‘Double pink’. 1976‘F. Clifford’ Drummer in Dark iv. 15 ‘What'll it be?’ ‘A pink, please.’
B. adj. [orig. attrib. use of sense 1 of the n.]
1. a. Of the colour of the pink (sense 1) in its single natural state; of a pale or light red colour, slightly inclining towards purple; of a pale rose-colour.
1720Mrs. Manley Power of Love (1741) I. 16 A Veil of Pink Colour. 1733–4Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. 431 Lady Dysart's clothes were pink armazine trimmed with silver. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 58 The pustule was small... Its base was of a light red or pink colour. 1821–30Ld. Cockburn Mem. vii. (1874) 350 He..could not be looked at without his face becoming pink. 1875Princess Alice in Mem. 14 Feb. (1884) 336 She looks pink and smiling.
b. With prefixed word expressing the particular shade, as light, deep, dull, pale pink; arbutus-, coral-, currant-, old-, orange-, prawn-, purple-, raspberry-, shell pink, etc. See also rose-pink, salmon-pink.
1882Garden 14 Oct. 347/1 A small flower with pale pink florets. 1887Daily News 20 July 6/1 A coral-pink embroidered dress. 1888Lady 25 Oct. 374/3 Some old pink rosebuds near the face. 1901Daily News 19 Jan. 6/7 A band of prawn-pink velvet.
c. Of the coloration of a newspaper: indicating a sporting edition.
1887, etc. [see Pink 'Un (a), sense C c]. 1922Joyce Ulysses 659 The Gold Cup flat handicap, the official and definitive result of which he had read in the Evening Telegraph, late pink edition.
d. Of the coloration on a map: indicating a British colony or dominion. Cf. pink n.4 5 c.
1960N. Mitford Don't tell Alfred vii. 74 It was bad luck for Alfred that the government..should be determined to paint the Minquiers pink on the map. 1973Listener 20 Dec. 857/2 Industrialisation played a big part in the drive to paint the map pink. British industries needed raw materials. 1976C. Bermant Coming Home i. vi. 88, I took it that the great green-coloured mass of the Sahara would pass to Britain... Gradually the whole of Africa glowed pink before my eyes. 1979Listener 26 July 112/3, I was drilled in geography... Most areas, I remember, were coloured pink on the map.
2. Applied to the colour of a hunting-coat: see A. 6.
1857Trollope Barchester T. xxii, He..could not be persuaded to take his pink coat out of the press, or his hunters out of his stable.
3. Politically left of centre, progressive; applied to socialism of a less extreme character than that denoted by ‘red’; loosely, Communist. Also absol. Cf. pink n.4 10.
1837De Quincey in Tait's Mag. Feb. 71/1 Amusing it is to look back upon any political work of Mr Shepherd's..and to know that the pale pink of his Radicalism was then accounted deep, deep scarlet. 1859Lytton What will he do with It? I. i. i. 9 Young 'un, I'm a Tory—that's blue; and Spruce is a Rad—that's pink! 1920Mrs. P. Snowden Through Bolshevik Russia 180 The people's flag is palest pink, It's not so red as you might think. 1924Scribner's Mag. Oct. 441/1 The Middle West is becoming pink. But it is genuine American pink. Not Moscow Red! 1939A. Thirkell Before Lunch iv. 84, I wouldn't mind her trying to run her pink politics down my throat..though I never see why being a Communist should make one abhor washing. 1973Listener 28 June 864/1 ‘I am not Communist, but..I am a little pink.’ Thus spake King Sihanouk of Cambodia. 1979‘S. Woods’ This Fatal Writ 81 The description ‘pale pink intellectual’ is far too tame for Susan... And he's just the opposite, a true blue Tory.
4. Violent, extreme; utter, absolute (see also quot. 1896). slang.
1896W. C. Gore in Inlander Jan. 149 Pink, used to intensify the negative. ‘He didn't know a pink thing about the lesson.’ 1901Daily Express 28 Aug. 4/3 The master of the house flies into a pink rage because his chop is not done. 1946B. Marshall George Brown's Schooldays 145 These rotten new kids really are the pink limit.
5. Slightly indecent, violent, or vulgar; mildly ‘blue’ (see blue a. 9).
1898R. Hichens Londoners xvi. 280 Lovely needle⁓work! That's a funny beginning for a Pink un. 1900Daily News 28 May 3/1 Most of their adjectives have a decidedly pink tinge. 1979J. Melville Wages of Zen xi. 117 One cinema showing ‘pink films’..and one strip show.
6. Of a plan, process, etc.: that must be kept secret.
1924Discovery June 83/1 Little was said about it [sc. wireless direction for boats and torpedoes] and in navy parlance it is a subject which is still slightly ‘pink’, a cryptic term indicating that even if we do happen to know something, we are not prepared to make a song about it. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 224 Pink, secret. An expression in some Government Offices during the war for secret telegrams. 1962Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 88/2 Pink... 2. Secret, hush⁓hush, from the pink (confidential) signal pads used in the Navy.
7. Of a person: white-skinned. Cf. pink n.4 9.
1936G. B. Shaw Millionairess Pref. 121 Even in Africa, where pink emigrants struggle with brown and black natives for possession of the land, and our Jamaican miscegenation shocks public sentiment, the sun sterilizes the pinks to such an extent that Cabinet ministers call for more emigration to maintain the pink population. 1971Rand Daily Mail 3 Apr. 5/8 We Pink South Africans are in danger of being cut off from the world. 1977P. Ustinov Dear Me iii. 26 On my first application to enter the United States..I described my colour as pink. I was told sternly that I was white, a fact which I denied, relying upon an Embassy mirror for evidence. A great deal of time was wasted, more especially since I failed to realize the subliminal implication of the word ‘pink’ in those days.
8. Phrases. strike me pink! (slang): an exclamation of astonishment or indignation; to paint the town pink: to go on a spree (after to paint the town red s.v. paint v.1 10); to swear pink (colloq.): to make vehement protestations; to ‘swear blind’; to tickle pink: see tickle v.
1902E. Nesbit Five Children & It viii. 218 When he beheld the magnificent proportions of Robert he said..‘Strike me pink!’ 1922Joyce Ulysses 623 And there he was at the end of his tether after having often painted the town tolerably pink. 1931A. P. Herbert Derby Day iii. 115 Ten thousand serpents! Strike me pink! Where's that girl? She'll go to clink! 1956E. Pound tr. Sophocles' Women of Trachis 20 And you swore pink they were bringing her to be Heracles' wife. 1969Sunday Mail Mag. (Brisbane) 7 Sept. 10/1 He was further reported as commenting on certain African members of the Commonwealth in the words: ‘Strike me pink, they'll do me for bloody butchers.’
C. Combinations (chiefly of the adj.).
a. Qualifying other adjs. of colour, as pink-brown, pink-pearl, pink-violet, pink-white; also pink-and-white, etc.
1845D. Jerrold Time Works Wonders i. 2 Jug. I've some beautiful bacon, sir, Such pink and white! Streaked, sir, like a carnation. 1853C. Brontë Villette I. xiv. 292 Your pink and white complexion. 1860Geo. Eliot Jrnl. in J. W. Cross George Eliot's Life (1885) II. x. 169 The Churches..with their wealth of gilding and rich pink-brown marbles. 1895W. B. Yeats Poems 148 But all the little pink-white nails have grown To be great talons. 1897Hall Caine Christian x, The pretty dark girl with the pink and white cheeks like a doll. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 389 Some zoophyte of an exquisite bright mauve or pink-violet colour. 1900Daily News 3 July 3/4 The crowds that give life to these wide pink-white streets present a bewildering display of colour. 1965A. Christie At Bertram's Hotel ii. 22 It made her come to life again—Jane Marple, that pink and white eager young girl. 1979P. Mason Skinner xiv. 96 We shall be junior to pink-and-white boys of eighteen straight from England.
b. Parasynthetic and instrumental, as pink-blossomed, pink-bound, pink-breasted, pink-checked, pink-cheeked, pink-coated, pink-complexioned, pink-faced, pink-flowered, pink-frilled, pink-haired, pink-handed, pink-leaved, pink-lipped, pink-ribbed, pink-scrolled, pink-shaded, pink-striped, pink-tinted, pink-veined, pink-vested adjs. pink-coloured: see A. 4.
1805–6Wordsworth Prelude (1959) vii. 260 Equestrians, Tumblers, Women, Girls, and Boys, Blue-breech'd, pink-vested. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 373 The baby, adorned in a pink-checked frock, a blue spotted pinafore, and a little white cap. 1840Mrs. Norton Dream 29 And pink-lipp'd shells and many-colour'd weeds. 1844Thackeray Box of Novels Wks. 1900 XIII. 403 Those pink-bound volumes are to be found in every garrison. 1873Morris in Mackail Life (1899) I. 293 Abundance of pink-blossomed leafless peach and almond trees. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right (1899) 156/2 Built of pale, pink-veined, creamy free-stone. 1892Greener Breech-Loader 174 Pink-edged, pink-faced,..and thick cardboard wads, cloth wads, and black wads, are used for special purposes. 1906Daily Chron. 23 Aug. 5/6 A white gown and blue picture hat and pink-frilled parasol. 1940E. Pound Cantos lxix. 174 Squad of the pink-haired snot. 1946S. Spender European Witness ix. 46 A pink-complexioned mild-mannered man. 1955D. Davie Brides of Reason 8 The nausea that struggles to despatch Pink-handed horror in a craggy room. 1962I. Murdoch Unofficial Rose iv. 41 She thrust a white-quartered green⁓eyed Madame Hardy in between two lilac-shaded pink-scrolled Louise Odiers. 1967A. West in Coast to Coast 1965–66 219 It was a soft, pink-cheeked face. 1978T. Gifford Glendower Legacy 264 She..had a succulent moist look, freshly showered, pink-cheeked.
c. Special combinations and collocations: pink-ash (see quot.); pink bed, one of the beds of sandstone in the Swanage quarries; pink bollworm, the pinkish larva of a small brown moth, Pectinophora gossypiella, of the family Gelechiidæ, which feeds on the lint or seeds of cotton bolls; pink button Stock Exchange, a jobber's clerk; pink champagne, rosé champagne; champagne to which a small quantity of still red wine has been added; pink-cheek, a fish of New South Wales, Upeneichthys porosus (Cent. Dict. 1890); pink disease, a disease of children caused by mercury poisoning, characterized by pinkness of parts of the body, restlessness, and photophobia; pink elephant, used as a type of the extraordinary or impossible; also (chiefly pl.), a characteristic apparition seen by someone drunk or delirious; cf. pink rat(s); pink-fever = pink-eye1 2 (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1893); pink-fish, a S. Californian pinkish-coloured gobioid fish, Typhlogobius californensis, which lives attached to the underside of stones (Webster 1902); pink-foot a. poet. = pink-footed a.; n. the Pink-footed goose n. (also attrib.); pink-footed a., having pink feet: spec. applied to the Pink-footed Goose (Anser fabalis brachyrhynchus); pink gilding, pink gold, gilding having a pink tinge resulting from a combination of gold, silver, and copper; pink gin, gin-and-bitters; pink-grass, an agricultural name for species of sedge, esp. Carex glauca and C. præcox, found in pastures; pink lady U.S., (a) a cocktail comprising gin, egg white, grenadine, and other ingredients; (b) (see quot. 1968–70); pink madder: see madder n.1 3; pink noise Physics, random noise having equal energy per octave, and so differing from white noise in having a greater proportion of low-frequency components; pink paper, a parliamentary paper containing the information specified in quot. 1894; pink pine N.Z., a small forest tree, Dacrydium biforme, of the family Podocarpaceæ, bearing linear juvenile leaves and scale-like adult ones, and yielding a resin from which manool is manufactured; pink rat(s), a characteristic apparition seen by someone drunk or delirious; cf. pink elephant; pink salmon, the humpback salmon, Oxyrhynchus gorbuscha; pink salt, the ammonium salt of tetrachloride of tin, 2 NH4Cl.SnCl4, used in calico-printing; pink saucer, a saucer containing a pigment used to give a pink tint to the skin, or to garments; transf. the pigment itself; pink slip U.S., a notice of dismissal from employment; also transf. and fig.; hence pink-slip v. trans., to dismiss, to fire; pink spot, used to designate a substance of uncertain composition found in the urine of some schizophrenics, observed as a pink spot on a chromatogram of it; pink tea N. Amer., a formal tea party or other social engagement; an exclusive gathering; also used as a type of the polite or genteel; also attrib.; pink thorn, a pink-flowered variety of the hawthorn, Cratægus monogyna; pink toe(s) U.S. Blacks' slang, a light-skinned black woman; a white girl; Pink 'Un [un, 'un2], a nickname for a newspaper printed on pink paper, spec. (a) The Sporting Times; also, a reporter for this newspaper; (b) The Financial Times; pinkwash, a composition used for rendering walls, etc., pink; so pink-washed adj.; pink wine, (a) slang, champagne; (b) vin rosé.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss. s.v. Coal, Anthracite is divided in the United States according to the color of the ash after burning, into white-ash, red-ash, and *pink-ash coal.
1858A. C. Ramsay, etc. Rock Spec. (1862) 142 (E.D.D.) The ‘*Pink Bed’, which forms a part of the Freestone Series.
1906H. Maxwell-Lefroy Indian Insect Pests iii. viii. 94 The *pink boll-worms are most abundant when the cotton forms bolls. 1917Jrnl. Agric. Res. IX. 343 The pink bollworm..is one of the most destructive cotton insects known. 1932[see grain-moth s.v. grain n.1 19]. 1955Sci. News Let. 23 July 56/2 The preferred food of the pink bollworm larva is the kernel of the cotton seed. 1972Swan & Papp Common Insects N. Amer. 325 Larvae of the Cotton Steam Moth..resemble pink bollworms.
1973Times 16 June 18/2 *Pink buttons are not..the female equivalents of blue buttons. 1974Sunday Tel. 7 Apr. 29/3 As ‘pink buttons’, they look after all the firm's communications, both between the floor of the House and the offices, and between the brokers and country exchanges.
1838J. Kenyon Poems 88 Lily on liquid roses floating—So floats yon foam o'er *pink champagne. 1940N. Mitford Pigeon Pie vi. 105 Oysters and pink champagne. 1974P. Erdman Silver Bears v. 63 Sorbet flavoured with pink champagne.
1921Med. Jrnl. Austral. 19 Feb. 146/1 When the rash is marked it is common to find the glands in the axillæ and groins enlarged. It is this pink rash, that leads to the name ‘*pink disease’. 1921Trans. 11th Sess. Australasian Med. Congr. 1920 444 In Sydney the entity of this illness has long been recognized, and it is usually spoken of by Dr. Clubbe and others as ‘the pink disease’. 1959D. Stowens Pediatric Path. x. 127/2 Acrodynia (Pink disease, Swift's disease, Feer's disease, Erythredema polyneuropathy). This bizarre condition is a manifestation either of poisoning by or hypersensitivity to, mercury. 1974Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xvii. 28/1 Pink disease earns its name from the colour of the hands and feet and not from an imaginary Dr Pink to whom many students credit its discovery.
1940This Week 5 Oct. 2 *Pink elephants. 1943F. Brown Angels & Spaceships (1954) 88 You mean if I saw a pink elephant I wouldn't believe it? 1946P. Larkin Jill 77 Whiskey? Would it make him drunk, would he stagger about and see pink elephants? 1960E. W. Hildick Boy at Window v. 45 It's like pink elephants. Folk 'ud think you'd been drinking if you went round saying you'd seen white mice running about wild! 1973L. Cooper Tea on Sunday xxxiv. 246 ‘I heard somebody.’ He'd be seeing pink elephants next.
1870Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 404 The *pink-foot doves Still told their weary tale unto their loves. 1931H. J. Massingham Birds of Seashore 38 Individual birds do not conform to pink-foot pattern. 1956C. Willock Death at Flight iii. 31 At least a thousand pinkfeet. Gone out on the muds for the night. 1957D. A. Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles VI. 239 In 1951 pink-foots arrived in Britain unusually late. 1972Shooting Times & Country Mag. 4 Mar. 7/1 Three-quarters of the pinkfeet that winter in Britain come from Iceland.
1839A. D. Bartlett in Proc. Zool. Soc. VII. 7 On a new British species of the genus Anser... *Pink-footed Goose... Legs and feet, of a reddish flesh colour or pink. 1843W. Yarrell Hist. Brit. Birds III. 66 The voice of the Pink-footed Goose differs from that of the Bean Goose in being sharper in tone. 1882Hepburn in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. No. 3. 505 The Bean and the Pinkfooted Goose, almost daily visitors..during spring. 1932Discovery Aug. 244/2 White-fronted and pink-footed geese..are supposed to be nesting at the sources of the rivers running northwards from the ice-cap [in Iceland]. 1976G. Evans in R. Durman Bird Observatories in Brit. & Ireland vii. 140 The Pink-footed Goose is now far from abundant.
1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 197/1 *Pink gilding,..should present at the same time, the red, yellow, and white shades, in such a manner that a practised eye will distinguish them.
1930H. Craddock Savoy Cocktail Bk. i. 124 *Pink gin cocktail. 1 Dash Angostura Bitters. 1 Glass Gin. 1952E. Grierson Reputation for Song xxii. 178 She knew the type: a big car, and pink gins, and wine for dinner. 1974J. Mitchell Death & Bright Water xix. 230 ‘Pink gin, please,’ he said, and she mixed it efficiently.
1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 196/2 *Pink gold [results] from the combination of gold, silver, and copper.
1944S. Bellow Dangling Man 149 She had been drinking *Pink Ladies, and she was running over. 1946C. Himes Black on Black (1973) 264 ‘Anything to drink?’ the waiter asked. ‘I think I should like a pink lady.’ 1968–70Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) III–IV. 92 Pink ladies, n. Barbiturates. (Drug users' jargon). 1972M. J. Bosse Incident at Naha ii. 99 There they were, the little pills, the Red Devils, Yellow Jackets, Christmas Trees, and Pink Ladies. 1975J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) i. 6 Now drink your Pink Lady.
1961G. A. Briggs A to Z in Audio 151 *Pink noise is derived from white noise by applying a rising bass characteristic through the range. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio xii. 220 White noise with bass tip-up is ‘pink’ noise. 1976Gramophone Apr. 1690/1 Measurements were made of the response of my lounge, using pink noise derived from a Rogers noise generator.
[18941st Rep. Sel. Comm. Parl. Papers Distribution p. iii. in Parl. Papers XIV. 497 A Schedule shall be circulated daily, weekly, or otherwise, as may be found most convenient, giving reference number, title, and short note of contents of all Papers presented to Parliament by Command of Her Majesty, or printed by Order of either House, since the date of the Schedule last issued. This Schedule shall be sent to each Member in the shape of a demand form, printed on pink paper, and returnable post free.] 1906Rep. Sel. Comm. Offic. Publ. 43 in Parl. Papers XI. 95 The *pink paper was started in 1889 as an experiment, and it was ratified in 1894 by the Committee. 1908Rep. Sel. Comm. Publ. 111 in Parl. Papers X. 849 The first Regulation directed the issue of what we all know as the ‘pink paper’.
1928Cockayne & Turner Trees N.Z. ii. 43 *Pink-pine. A small tree, 15–40 ft. high, or a shrub, with the juvenile leaves distinct from the adult. 1958N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Jan. 46/2 Pink pine... Small tree of sub-alpine forest of New Zealand. Often a shrub. 1969N.Z. News 23 July 4/3 Pink pine..is so slow growing that 18 in diameter trees on the West Coast are believed to be 800 years old.
1914C. D. Broad Perception iv. 266 The *pink rats that can only be seen by those who habitually take excess of alcohol. 1925― Mind & its Place iv. 142 Some bright spirit will at once complain that the pink-rat situation has no object. 1932H. H. Price Perception vi. 147 The celebrated case of the delirious man who ‘sees a pink rat’.
1905D. S. Jordan Guide to Study of Fishes II. iv. 71 The humpback salmon, or *pink salmon..is the smallest of the American species. 1952D. F. Putnam Canad. Regions 447/1 The humpback or pink salmon weighs, on the average, four pounds. 1976J. S. Nelson Fishes of World 100 Pink salmon have a rigid two-year life span.
1856Miller Elem. Chem. II. 936 A similar constitution holds in the corresponding ammoniacal salt NH4Cl, SnCl2, which is the *pink salt of the dyer. 1868Watts Dict. Chem. V. 810 It is used in calico-printing under the name of pink salt, for the production of red colours.
1864Webster, *Pink-saucer. 1888New York World 22 July (Farmer Amer.), Flesh tights..colored with what we call pink saucer in the profession, a kind of stuff you buy at the druggists.
1915‘B. L. Standish’ Covering Look-In Corner ix. 100 And have Murphy hand me the *pink slip tonight! 1923N.Y. Times 7 Oct. 2/1 Getting the pink slip, being canceled, which notice comes on pink paper. 1951Sat. Rev. Lit. (U.S.) 23 June 7/1 In small colleges and large universities hundreds of instructors and professors are getting ‘pink slips’ after the diplomas have been handed out. 1953Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (1954) §67/4 Pink-slip, give the blue envelope or pink slip,..to give notice of discharge. 1963Wodehouse Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves ix. 71 You mean that if Madeleine hands Gussie the pink slip, she'll marry you? 1966T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 v. 114 His wife had..left him the day after he was pink-slipped. 1975New Yorker 8 Sept. 115/1 Patrolmen on the beat, for example—got their pink slips because firing them was a dramatic way of demonstrating that the city was taking the crisis seriously.
[1962Nature 2 June 898/1 The application of a modified Ehrlich's reagent..resulted in a..pink spot.] 1966Listener 14 July 48/1 This ‘*pink spot’ substance, so called from how it appears in chemical analysis, has not yet shown hallucinogenic activity when swallowed by volunteers. 1973T. A. Ban Recent Adv. Biol. Schizophrenia iv. 30 Papers..some confirming but many more challenging the association of ‘pink spot’ with schizophrenia... Counterclaims have been advanced that the ‘pink spot’ is not 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine.
1886Weekly Manitoba Liberal 26 Nov. 8/3 The *Pink Tea held under the auspices of the Women's Christian Temperance Union... The ladies in charge were all fittingly attired with pink caps and aprons and some of the gentleman patrons wore pink ties. 1887Harper's Mag. Jan. 204/1 A Protestant good cause is to be furthered by a bazar or a ‘pink tea’. 1905J. London Let. 15 Sept. (1966) 184 Do you remember how Bessie dragged Anna Strunsky's name through the mire? Through all the..pink-tea councils? 1906N.Y. Even. Post 17 Nov. 1 From all accounts these [football] battles of the early eighties and late seventies were no ‘pink tea’ affairs. 1918[see Bolshevism]. 1934N. Sainsbury Gridiron Grit in Stirring Football Stories (1941) 55 What do you think football is, a pink tea? 1945Boulder (Colorado) Daily Camera 2 Nov. 7/4 Yes, the war was no pink tea. 1952North Star (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories) Dec. 2/1 We were only a name mentioned disparagingly at the clique's pink teas.
1852C. M. Yonge Two Guardians x. 165 The *pinkthorn, dressed in all its garlands, before her window. 1892― Old Woman's Outlook xi. 263 There stood on the lawn..a pink thorn.
1942Z. N. Hurston in Amer. Mercury July 96/1 *Pink toes, yellow girl. 1965C. Himes (title) Pinktoes. Ibid. 216 When Word whispered it about that even the great Mamie Mason had lost her own black Joe to a young Pinktoe, the same panic prevailed among the black ladies of Harlem as had previously struck the white ladies downtown. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 91 Pinktoes, a black man's white girl friend; a white girl.
1887Referee 31 July 2/1 Before doing so, I took the advice of one John Corlett, who propriets a paper called the *Pink 'Un. 1898A. M. Binstead (title) A Pink 'Un and a Pelican. 1902G. Calderon Downy V. Green xii. 75 Downy amused himself with the only two weeklies that were in evidence, the ‘Pink 'Un’ and the ‘Church Times’. 1930W. S. Maugham Cakes & Ale ix. 107 He gave me the Pink 'Un every week and I..read it in my bedroom. 1955[see man n.1 22 c]. 1970Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1330/1 Pink 'Un..The Financial Times, founded in 1913. 1975Blackw. Mag. CCCXVIII. 126/1 A Pink 'Un was a member of the staff of the Sporting Times or one of its close associates. 1979Guardian 2 Jan. 24/4 Today..the first Financial Times will hit Wall Street... But for all the..computer setting..the new international Pink 'un depends very much for its birth on the weather.
1953Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954) 23 The main street, Coronation Street, consists, for the most part, of humble, two-storied houses many of which attempt to achieve some measure of gaiety by prinking themselves out..by the liberal use of *pinkwash.
1926W. J. Locke Stories Near & Far 74 A long, two-storied, *pink-washed dwelling. 1936M. Allis Eng. Prelude xxxiii. 253 Lavenham, with its pink-washed houses. 1976Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 27 Aug., The track..passes closely to the right of a pinkwashed farmhouse.
1909J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 197/1 *Pink wine (Military), champagne. 1946A. L. Simon Let Wine be Wine 10 Rosé or pink wine is made in a number of different ways, either from grapes with a light red or pinkish skin; or from black grapes the skins of which are not left in the fermenting vat for more than a short while; or from red and white wines mixed together. 1972Times 16 Sept. 11/1 Pink wines from southern European vineyards tend to be dark in hue.
Sense A. 11 in Dict. becomes A. 11 b. Add: [A.] [II.] [11.] a. A rosé wine; vin rosé, = pink wine (b) (sense C. c below). colloq.
1928E. I. Robson Wayfarer in Fr. Vineyards ii. 28 There are many good pinks or rosés; Tavel (Rhône) is one of them. 1972Times 3 June 28/7 Portuguese pink with a slight sparkle... The great wine from Portugal. 1975P. V. Price Taste of Wine v. 99/2 The wines of Cairanne and Lirac, west of the Rhone, are now becoming better known, and also make good pinks.
Add:[B.] [8.] [Prob. because of the colour's long-standing feminine associations (in clothing etc.), as opposed to ‘masculine’ blue. See also pink triangle, sense *C. c below.] Of a man: gay, homosexual. Hence applied more generally to anything perceived as having some connection with homosexuals (esp. as an economic or political group, as pink pound, etc.). Cf. *lavender a. 3. colloq.
[1950H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 158/1 Pink pants, (rare) a young passive pederast or male oral sodomist.] 1972B. Rodgers Queens' Vernacular 149 Pink, homosexual. ‘You can meet a straight on Polk Strasse, but that doesn't make him pink.’ 1980Maledicta III. ii. 253 Lavender has become synonymous with gay; also pink, from the triangle on gays in Nazi concentration camps. 1984Guardian 14 May 11/1 The first major British company to start an openly gay business and go after the ‘pink pound’. 1987(title of newspaper) The pink paper: Britain's only national newspaper for lesbians & gay men. 1989Sydney Star Observer 30 June 1/1 An illegal ‘pink list’, banning gay or gay-associated actors, is maintained by several leading television casting directors, according to a leading Sydney actor and writer. 1990Independent 4 Sept. 16/6 The economic strength of the ‘pink pound’..was important in establishing the idea of a gay community. 1993Times 18 June 7/4 He launched his business after visiting New York and seeing the power of the ‘pink dollar’.
[C.] [c.] pink triangle, a triangular piece of pink cloth worn to identify homosexuals in Nazi concentration camps; hence, this symbol, used subsequently as a badge to express homosexuality or support for gay rights.
1950H. Norden tr. E. Kogon's Theory & Pract. of Hell iii. 43 Homosexual practices were actually very widespread in the camps. The prisoners, however, ostracized only those whom the SS marked with the *pink triangle. Ibid. 44 Criminals wore a green triangle... Jehovah's Witnesses wore purple; ‘shiftless elements’, black; homosexuals, pink. During certain periods, the Gypsies..wore a brown triangle. 1975N.Y. Times 10 Sept. 45/3 In the concentration camps.., the homosexuals were forced to wear pink triangles, and were treated as the lowest of the low by the Nazis. 1977J. Weeks Coming Out xvi. 191 You were encouraged to wear badges.., asserting your homosexuality, with slogans.., and with prominent logos from the butterfly or clenched fist of the early badges to the pink triangle (commemorating homosexual victims of the Nazi concentration camps) and the purple lambda of later badges. 1992New Republic 13 Apr. 29/1 Her brother Carl displays a pink slip to the library students he teaches, having been sacked for wearing a pink triangle to class.
▸ pink-collar adj.after blue-collar n. at blue adj. Special uses 3, white-collar adj. orig. and chiefly U.S. of, designating, or relating to employment traditionally associated with women (as nursing, hairdressing, secretarial work, etc.), or workers engaged in such employment.
1975McCalls Nov. 107 Adapted from the forthcoming book ‘*Pink Collar Worker’. 1977L. K. Howe Pink Collar Workers i. 21 The most dramatic distinctions continue between what can most descriptively be termed pink collar work and work in the male and integrated markets. 1987Independent 28 Jan. 13/3 The rise of women in American journalism is well on the way to making it a ‘pink collar’ industry. 2001Atlanta Constit. (Electronic ed.) 27 June Until we get some gender diversity, nursing will still be pink collar. Salaries have always reflected the undervaluing of women's work.
▸ pink lemonade n. chiefly U.S. lemonade coloured with a small amount of grenadine syrup, or (sometimes in later use) another natural or artificial colouring.
1872Brooklyn Daily Eagle 5 July 3/2 Repelling the advances of sundry youthful dealers in *pink lemonade. 1998Scotl. on Sunday (Nexis) 6 Sept. 30 The ingredients [of ‘Barbie Juice’]? ‘Pink lemonade (as sold in plastic bottles at the supermarket), diluted with water for the infants and with fizzy wine for the adults.’ 2002Esquire May 131/2 Bo blended her a drink with gin and ice cream and pink lemonade; he put whipped cream on top—pink panties, he called it.
▪ V. pink, n.5
[Origin unknown: it appears to be a distinct word from prec.]
A yellowish or greenish-yellow pigment or ‘lake’ obtained by the combination of a vegetable colouring matter with some white base, as a metallic oxide. Also pink-yellow = yellow lake.
brown pink and French pink are derived from Persian or Avignon berries (Rhamnus infectoria); Dutch pink, English pink, and Italian pink from quercitron bark (Quercus tinctoria).
1634Peacham Gentl. Exerc. i. xxiii. 75 Your principall yellow be these— Orpiment, Masticot, Saffron, Pinke Yellow, Oker de Luce, Umber. Ibid. xxvi. 90 For yellowish garments, thinne Pinke, and deepned with pinke and greene. 1658Phillips, Pink, a kinde of yellow colour used in painting. 1676Beale in H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1765) III. i. 78, I gave Mr. Manby two ounces of very good lake of my making, and one ounce and half of pink. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 148/2 Pinke, a kind of yellowish green. 1703T. S. Art's Improv. i. 39 English Pink, grind it with common Size. 1758Ann. Reg. 111/1 The colouring used..is supposed to be Dutch pink, which will make bohea tee of a fine green. 1823Crabb Technol. Dict., Pink,..a sort of yellow colour. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. I. 67 To the juices of this yellow weed [Reseda luteola] the artist owes the colour called Dutch pink. 1862Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., French pink, a pigment made of Troyes (i.e. Spanish) white with Avignon or French berries. 1875Ure's Dict. Arts I. 895 Brown-pink, and others of the same class are also evanescent in their layers.
▪ VI. pink, n.6|pɪŋk|
[Echoic.]
1. An imitation of the note of the chaffinch (often reduplicated, pink-pink); hence transf., a local name of the bird itself.
[1809Batchelor Anal. Eng. Lang. 140 Pint, a chaffinch (a Nottinghamshire word).] 1829J. L. Knapp Jrnl. Nat. 165 In Gloucestershire..from the constant repetition of one note, when alarmed or in danger, they have acquired the name of ‘twinks’, and ‘pinks’. 1831Howitt Seasons (1837) 106 The weet-weet and pink-pink of the chaffinch. 1864R. Chambers Bk. of Days II. 4/2. 1894 R. B. Sharpe Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit. I. 36 The Chaffinch..Its familiar note, ‘pink, pink’, is heard everywhere in the spring.
†2. A sea-bird of some kind. Obs.
1670Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1694) 81 Other such Sea-Fowls, as Pinks and Sea-mews.
3. = pinking vbl. n.3; a metallic rattle.
1927Fuel in Sci. & Pract. VI. 121/1 Ricardo attributed the ‘pink’ to the sudden inflammation of residual unburnt charge owing to its compression by the expanding burnt and burning portion. 1934Automobile Engineer XXIV. 346/1 ‘Detonation’ or ‘pink’ might occur in any class of engine. 1946[see knocking vbl. n. 1].
▪ VII. pink, n.7
see pink, a.2
▪ VIII. pink, n.8
see pink, v.3
▪ IX. pink, a.1
see pink n.4 A. 3, B.
▪ X. pink, a.2 and n.7 Obs. or dial.
[Of obscure history; as adj. used chiefly in pink eye, † pink nye, where it seems to be related to Du. pink ooghen: see pink v.2; the n. is used more widely in Sc.: cf. Du. pink the little finger, also a young bullock, a steer; pointing to an original sense ‘something small’.]
A. adj. Small, contracted, diminutive; in the obs. or arch. phrase pink eye, † pink nye, a small eye, a winking or half-shut eye: see pinkeny.
1575[see pinkeny 1]. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vii. 121 Come thou Monarch of the Vine, Plumpie Bacchus, with pinke eyne. 1608Topsell Serpents (1658) 661 The third sort [of Cantharides]..are of a rusty colour, and their small pink eyes as black as Jet. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Pink, small. ‘Aw never saw sic a Pink-eed body’.
B. n. Sc. Something very small:
†a. A diminutive specimen or creature; brat, elf (obs.);
b. A very small hole or spot, a small peep of light.
a1585Montgomerie Flyting 119 On sike as thysell, little pratling pinke, Could thou not ware inke, thy tratling to tell? 1824Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. (1876) 382 A small mind, with only a pink, or small gleam of light in it. 1866Gregor Banffsh. Gloss. 126 Pink, a very small hole; a very small spot.
▪ XI. pink, v.1|pɪŋk|
Forms: 4–6 pynke, 6 pynk, pyncke, 6–7 pinke, pincke, 6–8 pinck, 6– pink.
[Cf. LG. pinken to strike, peck (‘schlagen, picken’, Doornk.-Koolman s.v. pinke), suggested to be a nasalized modification of picken, pick v.1 The sense is more or less that of F. piquer, Pr., Sp. picar. (Some evidence (from Sp., Pg., Cat.) is adduced by Körting, No. 7163, for a Romanic stem pinc- prick, sting.) Cf. also the OE. Gloss on pincan = L. in puncto (Napier OE. Glosses No. 3683), which is however perh. a scribal error.]
1. intr. To make holes; to prick, thrust, stab. Now rare (or only as absol. use of 2 or 3).
The meaning of the first quot. is uncertain.
a1307Sat. Consistory Courts in Pol. Songs (Camden) 156 Heo pynkes with heore penne on heore parchemyn. 1530Palsgr. 658/1, I pynke. [No Fr.] 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., To Pink,..to stab, as, between casks, to detect men stowed away.
2. trans. To pierce, prick, or stab with any pointed weapon or instrument. Also fig.
1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iv. ii, By my hand, I will pinck your flesh, full of holes, with my rapier for this. 1671H. Foulis Hist. of Rom. Treas. (1681) 281 Cutting and pinking his Body with their Swords. 1716Addison Drummer iv. i, One of them pink'd the other in a duel. 1823Scott Peveril xlii, I would I had pinked one of the knaves at least. 1893Vizetelly Glances Back II. xxxi. 190 [He] pinked his sarcastic adversary in the arm.
†b. To pierce with a bullet. Also, to nick or wound slightly with a bullet.
1661Ogilby King's Coronation 19 With Bullets pink Their Quarters untill they sink. 1931R. Campbell Georgiad i. 14 ‘Onoto’—guns, As sported by Chicago's crooked sons, Able, at once, to..pink a stray policeman in the neck. 1950N.Y. Times 30 Dec. 27/1 Wall has been the victim of three attempted assassinations, in two of which he was ‘pinked’, as he expressed it.
c. fig. (with play on sense 3). to pink one's jacket or doublet, to pierce, hit, ‘pepper’, ‘dress’.
1684Voy. Capt. Sharp 45 But as soon as we began to pink some of their Jackets for them with our Fuzees, they got out of our reach. 1724Swift Wood's Exec. Wks. 1814 VII. 297, 3rd Taylor. I'll pink his doublet.
d. Pugilistic slang. To strike with the fist with visible effect.
1810Sporting Mag. XXXVI. 44 Hall was without science, and Ballard pinked his head. 1816Ibid. XLVIII. 180 The face of his opponent seemed a little pinked. 1821Ibid. N.S. VII. 274 Hudson was pinked all over. 1963Times 7 Feb. 3/5 At the end of the round Aldridge's left eye was looking ‘pinked’.
3. To ornament (cloth, leather, or the like) by cutting or punching eyelet-holes, figures, letters, etc. (usually in order to display a rich lining or under-garment of contrasting colour); to perforate; also, in modern use, to decorate the raw edge of silk, etc., by scalloping and punching out a pattern on it. Also to pink out.
1503Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 221 Item, for making of the said goun..xxs. Item, for pynking of the sleffis of it..vs. xd. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 37 They [skins of leather] must be stitched finelie, pincked, cutte, karued. 1596Nashe Saffron-Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 141 A sute made of..white canuas pinkt vpon cotton. 1600Dekker Gentle Craft Wks. 1873 I. 16 Here take this paire of Shooes cut out by Hodge,..seem'd by my selfe, Made up and pinckt, with letters for thy name. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xx. 207 The Turks did use to wonder much at our English men for pinking or cutting their clothes, counting them little better then mad for their pains to make holes in whole cloth. 1666Pepys Diary 15 Oct., A long cassocke..of black cloth, and pinked with white silke under it. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) IV. 5 His skin did look like Satin pinck'd, With Gashes many a score. 1768J. Byron Narr. Patagonia (ed. 2) 225 Their shoes are pinked and cut. c1800E. C. Knight Autobiog. I. 16 His father kept a shop, and he was obliged to pink shrouds. 1893Lady 17 Aug. 172/3 The edge may be pinked-out in the simple notches known as the ‘saw’ pattern. 1903Daily Chron. 30 May 8/4 Such silk can be bought ready ‘pinked’ at the edges.
fig.1576Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 43 Their bodies pinked full of scabs.
†4. To cut or puncture the skin as an adornment; to tattoo. Also intr. Obs.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. v. vii. 38 Their cutting, pinking, and pouncing of their flesh with garnishments..of sundry shapes and fashions. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 236 They of Sierra Leona..both men and women, race and pink over all their bodies. 1741tr. D'Argens' Chinese Lett. xxx. 221 The Tunguses have the Skin of their Foreheads and Cheeks pink'd in the manner of Embroidery. 1781[see pinked 1].
5. To adorn, beautify, deck.
1558T. Phaer æneid. iv. I iv b, This pranking Paris fyne with mates of beardles kynde..With grekishe wymple pynkyd womanlyke. 1577Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1650) 89 Is it seemly for a prophet to pinck and gingerly to set forth him⁓self? 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Lily, The Flowers..are..crooked, purpled, and pink'd with certain red Spots, they smell sweatly and please the Sight. 1892Temple Bar Mag. Apr. 539 April..pink'd the earth with flowers. 1896[C. Rogers] Bairnsla' Foak's Ann. 20 (E.D.D.) T' windas wor pinked aht wi a touch a gas leet inside.
▪ XII. pink, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.|pɪŋk|
Forms: 6 pynke, 6–7 pinck, pinke, 7– pink.
[= Du. pinken to shut the eyes (Hexham, 1678), to wink, to leer, MDu. pincken, Du. pinken to blink, to glimmer, MHG. pinken. Kilian has also pinck ooghen ‘connivere, nictare, oculis semiclausis intueri, oculos contrahere et aliquo modo claudere’ (cf. mod.Du. knipoogen to blink, leer); also pincke n. ‘(vetus) lumen, oculus’. History unknown.]
1. intr.
a. Of the eyes: To be half shut, to blink; to peer, peep. Now dial.
b. Of a person: To peep or peer with half-closed eyes; to blink or wink in a sleepy or sly manner; to look slyly. Now dial.
†c. transf. Of a candle, etc.: To shine with a peep of light, to peep; to twinkle, to shine faintly (obs.).
a.c1540J. Heywood Four P.P. B ij, And vpon drinkyng, myne eyes wyll be pinkynge. [Cf.c1554Interl. of Youth C iij, Yet I can tel you more and ye wyll con me thanke Pinke and drinke and also at the blanke And many sportes mo.] 1556J. Heywood Spider & F. lxix. 55 Though his iye on vs therat pleasantlie pinke, Yet will he thinke, that we saie not as we thinke. 1681Roxb. Ball. V. 86 When our senses are drown'd, and our eyes they do pink. 1733–4Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. I. 426, I can't brag much of my eye. I find it still weak..though it went pinking and blinking to court last night.
b.1587Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 160 They..sit still pinking with their narrow eies as halfe sleeping. a1591H. Smith Serm. (1866) I. 395 They stand aloof from religion, pinking and winking. 1602Narcissus (1893) 711 Thou dost pinke vpon mee with thine eyen. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) V. xix. 211 Mrs. Bevis presently returned with an answer (winking and pinking at me) that the lady would follow her down. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) Post. Groans xxxv, Pinking and blinking with his up-and-down-goggles full at me.
c.1589Pappe w. Hatchet D iv b, Martin with a wit worn into the socket, twinkling and pinking like the snuffe of a candle. 1616Breton Good & Badde 38 He is but the snuffe of a Candle, that pinke it never so long, ‘it will out at last’. a1674Herrick Epithalamium Poems (1869) 454 You starres, Begin to pinke.
2. pink in (of daylight, etc.): To close in, diminish, ‘draw in’. dial.
1886T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. II. vi. 87 It being now what the people called the ‘pinking in’ of the day, that is, the quarter-hour just before dusk. 1888― Wessex Tales (1889) 36 The evening is pinking in a'ready.
▪ XIII. pink, v.3|pɪŋk|
[app. echoic.]
1. intr. To trickle, drip; also, to make a tinkling sound in dripping. Hence pink n.8, a drop, also the sound made by a drop (Jamieson's Dict. 1880). Sc.
1768Ross Helenore 23 An' a' the time the tears ran down her cheek, An' pinked o'er her chin upon her keek. a1812W. Ingram Dream in Walker Bards Bon-Accord (1887) 368 The soot draps pinkin frae the riggin'. 1815West Briton 14 Apr. (Jam.), O'er crystall'd roof and sparry wall, Where pinking drops perpetual fall.
2. intr. Of an internal-combustion engine: to exhibit pinking (pinking vbl. n.3). Of a fuel: to cause pinking Also fig.
1904Kipling Muse among Motors, That cursed left-hand cylinder the doctors call my heart Is pinking past redemption—I am done! 1925A. W. Judge Carburettors & Carburation ii. 19 The principal advantage of benzole is its higher detonating compression value; this enables it to be used in high compression petrol engines liable to ‘pink’ or knock, without experiencing these effects. 1933Petroleum Handbk. (Shell Internat. Petroleum Co.) viii. 145 The tendency of a fuel to pink or detonate is its most important property in use. 1955Times 12 July 12 The car tested was inclined..to pink slightly in accelerating from a low engine speed. 1970‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Cookie Bird vi. 78 My brain was pinking like the old Morris. 1972Drive New Year 122/2 Such driving on the recommended 2-star petrol caused the engine to ‘pink’ noisily.
▪ XIV. pink, v.4|pɪŋk|
[f. pink a.1]
a. intr. To become pink. Also with up.
1854A. E. Baker Gloss. Northamptonshire Words II. 116 Pink, to blush. ‘How she pinks up!’ 1909R. A. Wason Happy Hawkins 136, I hadn't never seen those cheeks pink up for anything but fun or anger before. 1927P. Marks Lord of Himself 32 Mrs. Peter's eyes were sparkling again, and her cheeks pinked with happy colour.
b. trans. To shear (a sheep) closely so that the colour of the skin shows through; esp. in phr. to pink 'em. (Austral. and N.Z. colloq.)
1898Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. 15 Another term for fine-cut is pinkin' 'em—showing the pink flesh. 1899W. T. Goodge Hits! Skits! & Jingles! 155 And he ‘pinked’ him like a leather-neck when squatters paid a pound! 1900H. Lawson Verses, Pop. & Humorous 168 Get the bell-sheep out;..But ‘pink’ 'em nice and pretty when you see the Boss's boots. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Nov. 28/1 Instead of being ‘pinked’, there was sufficient wool left on as weather protection. 1956G. Bowen Wool Away! (ed. 2) 156 Pink 'em, to make a very good or better than average job of a sheep. Shearers sometimes call this a ‘special cut’.
c. trans. To make pink (in various senses of the adj.).
1927W. Deeping Kitty xxvi. 330 You've more idea of colour than I have. I'm too fond of pinking things. 1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 22 The pretty pretty bourgeois pinks his language just as pink If not pinker. |