India ink
Americannoun
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a black pigment consisting of lampblack mixed with glue or size.
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a liquid ink from this.
Etymology
Origin of India ink
First recorded in 1655–65
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.
Lotion tubes, squirt bottles, brushes, a honey bear, solo flip-flops, a Wiffle ball and a legless lawn flamingo now stained bone-white, all provide the canvas for Riley’s patterned mariner drawings in India ink.
From New York Times • Jun. 16, 2022
The Victorian-era collections are true works of art, with purple, red, brown and green algae arranged in eye-catching patterns on sturdy white card and signed in flowing India ink.
From The Guardian • Oct. 27, 2020
Visitors can see the pencil lines beneath the India ink, and the white-out on top.
From Washington Post • Jan. 15, 2020
“There’s a white lime coating underneath . and they put black India ink on top.”
From Washington Times • Apr. 24, 2016
One could have believed that its whiteness, smoothness, and expanse had at one time cried out rather plaintively for India ink and block lettering.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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.
