crayon
Americannoun
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a pointed stick or pencil of colored clay, chalk, wax, etc., used for drawing or coloring.
-
a drawing in crayons.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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a small stick or pencil of charcoal, wax, clay, or chalk mixed with coloured pigment
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a drawing made with crayons
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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crayonsimple
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crayonssimple
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have crayonedperfect
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has crayonedperfect
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am crayoningprogressive
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are crayoningprogressive
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is crayoningprogressive
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have been crayoningperfect progressive
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has been crayoningperfect progressive
Past
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crayonedsimple
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had crayonedperfect
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was crayoningprogressive
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were crayoningprogressive
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had been crayoningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of crayon
1635–45; < French, equivalent to craie chalk (< Latin crēta clay, chalk) + -on noun suffix
Explanation
A crayon is a colorful stick of wax made for drawing and coloring. It’s also what you do with it. If a kid asks you to crayon with her, bring some paper and your imagination. Young artists often start with crayons, since they’re easy to deal with. Harold and the Purple Crayon is a book about a little boy who draws his own adventures with one purple crayon. But crayons come in hundreds of colors. While the history of drawing with colored wax dates back to ancient Egypt, the crayon we know today has been around — along with the word itself — since the 17th century. It comes from the French crayon, "pencil."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
If you have ever used a "magic eraser" sponge to scrub away scuffs on white shoes or crayon marks on a wall, you have seen how powerful these cleaners can be.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 18, 2026
It features 26 paintings, oil sketches and drawings, these last done in Conté crayon, a medium made from powdered graphite and carbon black that allowed deeper blacks and more expressive tonal contrasts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
As seen in the exhibition, his Conté crayon drawings from these months informed his paintings, which pointedly eschewed any hint of the picturesque and also of Impressionist painting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
He jokes that he just adds more “crudely drawn crayon lines and mascara beard” to show his character aging throughout the course of the show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2025
The tattered oilcompany roadmap had once been taped together but now it was just sorted into leaves and numbered with crayon in the corners for their assembly.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
Even as a child colouring with the crayons she loved, she seemed to be doing the wrong thing.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
In other rooms, colleagues arranged pencil sharpeners, water bottles and crayons in patterns, recording with depth-sensor cameras.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
A big electronic billboard in downtown Midland shows current market rates for oil and gas and the local oil-rig count, along with motivational slogans like “broken crayons still color.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
Picture being at a restaurant with a fresh activity kids’ menu and set of crayons.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 10, 2025
The students are each given several sheets of newsprint and thick colored crayons whose labels have been peeled.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Many families hung banners with crayoned, or painted, rainbows, with a hashtag mantra: “Tutto andra’ bene,” or everything will turn out OK.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 15, 2020
Taped to another wall are coloring book tear-outs of Odums’ drawings, crayoned in by young children who come here for art instruction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2020
In the 50th minute, as the crayoned cheeks began to run, Swiss forward Steven Zuber snapped a header to level the game at 1.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2018
A brightly crayoned Pollock's toy theatre pops up in its place, its flat proscenium arch festooned with pictures of the Cheshire Cat and Captain Hook.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 31, 2013
The youngsters were standing silently outside the courthouse, displaying crayoned signs urging equal voting rights, when the sheriff ordered them to follow him down the street.
From "Because They Marched" by Russell Freedman
Lately, those maps have come to resemble abstract art, or just crayoning gone wild.
From New York Times ● Jan. 12, 2024
Kraemer seemed to pause only once, when he beamed at an embassy employee crayoning the red-and-white flag onto cheeks all shapes and colors.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2018
Their bags were stuffed with nappies and milk for Riad, who is busily crayoning and crawling under the table while they talk.
From The Guardian ● May 25, 2016
After crayoning the wax onto your board you clip the paper to the iron so it's between the iron plate and your base.
From Time Magazine Archive
Because, with Maniac around, Hester and Lester lost their interest in crayoning everything in sight.
From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
