complementary colour

British  

noun

1. one of any pair of colours, such as yellow and blue, that give white or grey when mixed in the correct proportions

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Example Sentences

Since the main character is red, I chose green – the complementary colour – for the pigs, who have stolen the birds’ eggs and are sheltering in the structures.

From The Guardian • Feb. 23, 2016

A complementary colour, in its strictest sense, may be described as the colour which, combined with the colour whose complement is required, makes up white.

From Colour Measurement and Mixture by Abney, W. de W.

The golden tint of the electric lights seems to give a complementary colour to the air in the early evening.—Essay on London.

From Poems of To-Day: an Anthology by Various

I had never heard of a complementary colour in my life, and I was just racking my brains to think what to say, when my eyes happened to light on Miss Smith’s carrots.

From The Fortunes of the Farrells by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.

Let the complementary colour be its auxiliary, and not its rival.”

From Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess