1790–1800; < Arabic kohl, variant of kuhl. See alcohol
Kohl is a dark powder that's used as eye makeup. When you dress up for a fancy event, you might add a dramatic line of kohl along the top of your eyelid. Kohl is an especially familiar cosmetic in South Asia, the Middle East, and various parts of Africa. It's commonly associated with India, where it's used by women, as well as some men and children. Kohl is worn in several Indian states as part of religious festivals, and in others it's frequently applied to babies' eyes. Historians have traced kohl back at least as far as 3100 BCE, when it was applied to the eyes of Egyptian queens.
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Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, Helmut Kohl in 2017 and Mikhail Gorbachev in 2022.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026
The centerpiece of the expansion will be a 1,000-seat concert hall named for Pasadena philanthropists Terri and Jerry Kohl with an in-the-round design meant to create intimacy between the performers and the audience.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 20, 2024
First, he referred to the presidents of France and Germany as François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, respectively.
From Slate • Feb. 10, 2024
Then, on Wednesday, he referred twice to having met in 2021 with Helmut Kohl, a former German chancellor who died in 2017, instead of with Angela Merkel, who led the country three years ago.
From New York Times • Feb. 9, 2024
“You can’t do this to me,” Kohl begged.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
