incarnadine
Americanadjective
-
blood-red; crimson.
-
flesh-colored; pale pink.
noun
verb (used with object)
verb
adjective
Etymology
Origin of incarnadine
1585–95; < Middle French, feminine of incarnadin flesh-colored < Italian incarnatino, equivalent to incarnat ( o ) made flesh ( see incarnate) + -ino -ine 1; see carnation
Explanation
The verb incarnadine literally means "to make the color of flesh," although it's more commonly used to mean "to redden." The first use of incarnadine as a verb is in Shakespeare's Macbeth, when Macbeth talks about the blood on his hands in Act 2, Scene 2. He says, "Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." Macbeth means that there is not enough water in the sea to cleanse his hands, but instead the blood on them will stain the ocean red.
Vocabulary lists containing incarnadine
Body Language: Carn ("Flesh")
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 2
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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.
The result bore an uncanny resemblance to ham: the surface dark, the interior incarnadine, the flesh easy to cut into meaty slices.
From New York Times • Aug. 24, 2020
The word "incarnadine", for example is much touted as a Shakespeare coinage, but did it really catch on?
From The Guardian • Jul. 23, 2010
Last week a suppressed flair for a style more incarnadine and virile apparently overcame him.
From Time Magazine Archive
Just inside the entrance, the incarnadine exclamation of a Poiret dress laps a female figure like ripples on a lakeshore.
From Time Magazine Archive
Or— The multitudinous sea incarnadine, Making the green one red.
From Poetry by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
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.
