incarnadine

American  

[in-kahr-nuh-dahyn, -din, -deen] / ɪnˈkɑr nəˌdaɪn, -dɪn, -ˌdin /

adjective

1. blood-red; crimson.

2. flesh-colored; pale pink.

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noun

1. an incarnadine color.

verb (used with object)

incarnadined, incarnadining

1. to make incarnadine.

incarnadine British  

/ ɪnˈkɑːnəˌdaɪn /

verb

1. (tr) to tinge or stain with red

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adjective

1. of a pinkish or reddish colour similar to that of flesh or blood

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

incarnadine incarnadined incarnadining

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

Let senile soakers And jaded jokers Their bottle-noses still incarnadine, But we, with Villa, Prefer Vanilla Or Sarsaparilla to the choicest wine.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, May 6, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir

That mouth has been incarnadined in the deepest red, so it seems to have an autonomous life that’s at odds with the cool, pale skin that surrounds it.

From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2019

The Dunmore, rigged and coursed with smoke like some spirit vessel, cast volleys of flame through its entanglements of cloud, and all its gray was incarnadined with fire.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

The ruby my vow desires For your beauty smiling kind Is surely incarnadined By a limpid mirror's fires.

From Contemporary Belgian Poetry Selected and Translated by Jethro Bithell by Various

The firelight played upon her half-averted face, twisted shadows into the sheen of her hair, incarnadined her smooth cheek.

From V. V.'s Eyes by Harrison, Henry Sydnor

That moment she turned, she came running towards me, her arms stretched out, her face incarnadined for the one moment with heavenly blushes, the next pale as death.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

The hateful stream continued to pump forth from the cut, incarnadining the muddy road, and in despair she took Pilot by the head and began to lead him down the hill towards the valley.

From All on the Irish Shore Irish Sketches by Somerville, E. Oe. (Edith Oenone)

Oh, more than ever, now I sometimes think no poetry is read Save where some sepultured Caesura bled, Royally incarnadining all the line.

From The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke by Brooke, Rupert

Related Words

• glowing
• rose-colored