ink

[ingk]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ink ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a fluid or viscous substance used for writing or printing.

a dark, protective fluid ejected by the cuttlefish and other cephalopods.

Informal. publicity, especially in print media: Their construction plans got some ink in the local paper.

verb (used with object)

to mark, stain, cover, or smear with ink: to ink one's clothes.

Slang. to sign one's name to (an official document): We expect to ink the contract tomorrow.

Origin of ink

1200–50; Middle English inke, enke < Old French enque < Late Latin encautum, variant of encaustum < Greek énkauston purple ink, noun use of neuter of énkaustos burnt in. See encaustic

Related formsink·er, nounink·less, adjectiveink·like, adjectivere·ink, verb (used with object)un·inked, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for ink

Contemporary Examples of ink

The edges of the elegant paper are crackled; the ink bled into the linen weave long ago and has not faded.
How Gettysburg Did Not Unlock the Past
Laird Hunt
September 21, 2014
A lot of ink will continue to be spilled about the first-order problems surrounding that fact.
The Rhinohawks Come Roaring Back
James Poulos
September 7, 2014
His ink ranges from images of his children to the Superman logo (that one seems especially fitting given his leaping blocks).
Team USA Lost, but Tim Howard Is a Winner
Emily Shire
July 1, 2014
Nor does the suggestion that her justified complaints about pay inequity played no part in her ouster hold much printer's ink.
The Hypocrisy Behind The New York Times’s Abrupt Decapitation of Jill Abramson
Robert Shrum
May 18, 2014
Unfortunately, the papyrus was too fragile to allow for carbon testing of the ink.
The ‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’ is Still as Big a Mystery as Ever
Candida Moss
April 13, 2014

Historical Examples of ink

There is a reference to “pen and ink” in the 3d Epistle of John xiii.
The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens
Henry Bore
Strange, that the mere identity of paper and ink should be so powerful.
A Book of Autographs
Nathaniel Hawthorne
You could see them as plain as if they was painted on the moon with ink.
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
There was paper, there was ink and there was a pen with a new nib in it, and blotting paper!
The Foolish Lovers
St. John G. Ervine
But it is time to lay down my pen, since my ink runs nothing but gall.
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)
Samuel Richardson

British Dictionary definitions for ink

ink

noun

a fluid or paste used for printing, writing, and drawing

a dark brown fluid ejected into the water for self-concealment by an octopus or related mollusc from a gland (ink sac) near the anus

verb (tr)

to mark with ink

to coat (a printing surface) with ink

Word Origin for ink

C13: from Old French enque, from Late Latin encaustum a purplish-red ink, from Greek enkauston purple ink, from enkaustos burnt in, from enkaiein to burn in; see en- ², caustic

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ink

"the black liquor with which men write" [Johnson], mid-13c., from Old French enque "dark writing fluid" (11c.), from Late Latin encaustum, from Greek enkauston "purple or red ink," used by the Roman emperors to sign documents, originally a neuter adjective form of enkaustos "burned in," from stem of enkaiein "to burn in," from en- "in" + kaiein "to burn" (see caustic). The word is from a Greek method of applying colored wax and fixing it with heat. The Old English word for it was simply blæc, literally "black." Ink-blot test attested from 1928.