crimson

plural crimsons

1. countableuncountableA deep, slightly bluish red.

   To my horror I perceived that the yellow blossoms were all dabbled with crimson.

   1904 January 30, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Priory School”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC

comparative more crimson · superlative most crimson

1. Having a deep red colour.

   Her crimson dress inflames grey corridors, or flaring in a sunshaft through high branches makes of the deep green shadows a greenness darker yet, and a darkness greener.

   1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast

   1 more example

   Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168

2. Immodest.

present singular third person crimsons · participle present crimsoning · participle past crimsoned · past crimsoned

1. intransitiveTo become crimson or deep red; to blush.

   1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Ring” in The Poetical Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, New York and Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Volume 2, p. 662, Father. Why do you look so gravely at the tower? Miram. I never saw it yet so all ablaze With creepers crimsoning to the pinnacles,

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   Eugenie's quick apprehensions seized the foul thought. Her eyes flashed—her cheek crimsoned.

   1841, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XIII, in Night and Morning […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC

   Gerty MacDowell bent down her head and crimsoned at the idea of Cissy saying an unladylike thing like that out loud she'd be ashamed of her life to say, flushing a deep rosy red, and Edy Boardman said she was sure the gentleman opposite heard what she said. But not a pin cared Ciss.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

2. transitiveTo dye with crimson or deep red; to redden.

   Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand, Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe.

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

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   Her face was crimsoned over, and she exclaimed, in a voice of the greatest emotion, “Good God! Willoughby, what is the meaning of this? […]”

   1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 153

   […] that sheetless bed (that nuptial couch of love and grief) with the pale and bloody corpse in its patched and weathered gray crimsoning the bare mattress […]

   1936, William Faulkner, chapter 5, in Absalom, Absalom!, New York: Modern Library, published 1951, page 138