lipstick
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of lipstick
Explanation
Lipstick is makeup that makes your lips look darker, redder, or shinier. Your French teacher might be famous in your school for her heart-shaped glasses and bright pink lipstick. Some people like to wear lipstick every day, while others save it for fancy occasions. Most lipstick is a waxy, slightly creamy substance in a stick that's tinted with red pigment that colors your lips. It's a cosmetic that dates back at least to medieval times, and probably even farther back than that. In the 1600s, a fashionable look for upper class European women was a pale white face and bright red lipstick.
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The items include unpublished photographs, a script with notes from her final production, the unfinished short film "Something's Got to Give," and personal items such as handwritten recipes and her Elizabeth Arden lipstick.
From Barron's • Jun. 1, 2026
His miniature fingernail polish paintings of everyday objects — a purse, a lipstick tube, a stiletto — are equal parts playful and macabre.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026
The model riffs on Bessette’s minimalist look, wearing red lipstick, a simple gray cardigan and black pants.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026
The child they produced had different ideas and deep red lipstick is one of Wylie's trademarks.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
She had a strangely blank, moon-shaped face, wire-framed spectacles, and no makeup apart from a smear of yellow lipstick.
From "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz
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.
