lipstick
Americannoun
-
lipsticks
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
My perverse love for lip stuff traces back to when I was 4 and first tried on my grandmother’s Clinique lipstick in Raspberry Glace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Its factories can supply everything from frozen meat and candy to lipstick, medicine capsules and sports hijabs.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
In footage posted mid-June, state media showed a Revolutionary Guard member teaching women wearing heavy lipstick how to handle AK-47 assault rifles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
It is an extension of the so-called "lipstick effect" economic theory that was popularised in the early 2000s, whereby people who couldn't afford to buy something really expensive would buy a little luxury item instead.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
She wipes a smudge of dirt from Marion’s nose and scrubs lipstick from my teeth with her finger.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
It launched a range of $160 Louis Vuitton lipsticks in August and will keep a tight leash on manufacturing and distribution.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025
Over martinis at Figaro, my friends pull out their lipsticks and glosses one by one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2024
"But now the lipsticks and make-up go unworn, and clothes are no longer of interest, especially the leopard print."
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2024
In July, cookie cutters shaped like lipsticks and convertible cars picked up steam, thanks to Barbie mania.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2023
They were at the vanity, trying on the lipsticks and perfumes, which I’ve done in my own mami’s bedroom countless times.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
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.
