yellow
/ˈjɛləʊ
/adjective
1Of the colour between green and orange in the spectrum, a primary subtractive colour complementary to blue; coloured like ripe lemons or egg yolks: curly yellow hair...
- Although the red tomatoes were good, the green and yellow ones weren't ripe enough.
- One of the bedrooms to the front has a built-in desk and wardrobe and a blue and yellow colour scheme.
- The two mixed together into one colour - just like yellow and blue become green.
Synonyms
yellowish, yellowy, lemon, lemony, amber, gold, golden;
blonde, light brown, fair, flaxen
1.1 offensive Having a naturally yellowish or olive skin (as used to describe Chinese or Japanese people).
1.2Denoting a warning of danger which is thought to be near but not actually imminent: he put Camp Visoko on yellow alert...
- There's even a couple of yellow radioactivity warning lights for sinister effect.
- So lets just say that the blog is being written on yellow alert and I reserve the right to not say everything on the blog.
- Strapped to each one is a wooden stake with a bright yellow hazard tape attached, warning people to stay away.
2 informal Not brave; cowardly: he’d better get back there quick and prove he’s not yellow...
- So go stand on your feet like a man, or whine like the yellow coward that you are.
- He is an ordinary candidate whose yellow streak has already shown itself.
- Some of the men had gone soft and yellow and turned against them when Cartwright showed up, but that was no problem now.
Synonyms
cowardly, lily-livered, faint-hearted, chicken-hearted, pigeon-hearted, craven, spiritless, spineless, timid, timorous, fearful, trembling, quaking, shrinking, cowering, afraid of one's own shadow, pusillanimous, weak, feeble, soft
informal chicken, weak-kneed, gutless, yellow-bellied, wimpish, wimpy, sissy, sissified
British informal wet
North American informal candy-assed
North American vulgar slang chickenshit
archaic poltroon, recreant, poor-spirited
3(Of a style of writing, especially in journalism) lurid and sensational: he based his judgement on headlines and yellow journalism...
- Like yellow journalism, it is yellow politics and I am against it.
noun
1 [mass noun] Yellow colour or pigment: the craft detonated in a blaze of red and yellow [count noun]: painted in vivid blues and yellows...
- Buildings painted brilliant yellow, ochre, red or green and not looking over the top.
- Huge sticker-boards in bright yellow, blue and red will greet the children as they walk in.
- I have had a lot of success using the colours red and yellow, while green and blue tend to be very slow in producing runs.
1.1Yellow clothes or material: everyone dresses in yellow...
- My father had told me to have her look nice, and her blue and pink dress was much more suitable than her old yellow.
- When Henry heard of her death, he celebrated at a banquet dressed in bright yellow from head to toes.
- To my left stood a young girl dressed in bright orange and yellow.
2A yellow ball or piece in a game or sport, especially the yellow ball in snooker: he missed an easy yellow in frame four...
- Ebdon had the chance to seal victory in the deciding frame after White missed a yellow.
- He misses a yellow with just three reds left, and another long safety battle ensues.
- Gyan collects a yellow for booting the ball into the crowd in protest at a decision going against him.
3 [with modifier] Used in names of moths or butterflies that are mainly yellow in colour, in particular:
- A butterfly related to the brimstones and sulphurs (Eurema, Colias, and other genera, family Pieridae). See also clouded yellow A small European moth (several species in the family Geometridae)..
4 (yellows) Any of a number of plant diseases in which the leaves turn yellow, typically caused by viruses and transmitted by insects.Their research indicates that aster yellows are the primary disease concern....
- A plant with aster yellows develops weak, yellowing leaves and twisted or distorted stems and flowers.
- Stunted, twisted growth and oddly distorted flowers are the symptoms of aster yellows, a disease which often shows up in midsummer.
verb [no object]
Become yellow, especially with age: the cream paint was beginning to yellow (as adjective yellowing) yellowing lace curtains (as adjective yellowed) a yellowed newspaper cutting...
- The pages are yellowing, the leather worn, but the handwriting is still crystal clear.
- The sun shone in through the office window, yellowing one of the policemen's trousers.
- All else was a seemingly endless field of grass, tall, yellowing and waving gently in the warm breeze.
Phrases
the yellow peril
Derivatives
yellowly
- Overhead, the full moon leered yellowly between ghostly wisps of cloud, and the Cathedral bells began to chime.
- Distant lights beckoned yellowly, and Gideon moved towards them, his collar pulled uselessly up about his neck.
- Walking, the fairly turned pianos yellowly softly sweat.
yellowness
/ noun ...- In fact, it is quite obscenely lurid in its sheer, wanton yellowness.
- I confronted this fact while standing in front of a gorgeous yellow bowl, decorated with nothing but its own perfect yellowness, which looked utterly Chinese to me.
- And the thankfully near full moon was magically radiant in its slight yellowness, divinely suspended in nothingness amid the sequined backdrop of stars, planets and galaxies.
yellowy
/ adjective ...- The yellowy gold brew isn't as hoppy as most true pale ales, but this is a good choice for Keith's drinkers who want to go a bit more upscale.
- Actually, it's two varnishes - an opaque yellowy gold base coat and a see-through gold with glitter as the top coat.
- Awash with glittering gold, adorned in yellowy brilliance, the jewellery designers cut a new path, defiantly and creatively.
Origin
Old English geolu, geolo, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch geel and German gelb, also to gold.
As with other colour words such as auburn and brown, the root of yellow probably referred to a wider range of colours than the modern word. It shares an ancestor with gold (see golden), but is also related to gall (Old English), bile (mid 17th century), and the final element of melancholy, all of which derive from the greenish colour of bile. The yellow egg yolk (Old English), which could be spelt yelk into the 17th century, was also related to yellow. In the 17th century yellow rather than green was the colour of jealousy, possibly with the idea of a jealous person being ‘jaundiced’ or bitter. The word jaundice (Middle English) is from Old French jaune ‘yellow’, from the symptomatic yellowish complexion. Yellow is now associated with cowardice, a link that began in the 1850s in the USA. Since the 1920s a coward has been said to be yellow-bellied or a yellow-belly.