rouge

[roozh]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR rouge ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

any of various red cosmetics for coloring the cheeks or lips.

a reddish powder, chiefly ferric oxide, used for polishing metal, glass, etc.

Canadian football.

verb (used with object), rouged, roug·ing.

to color with rouge.

verb (used without object), rouged, roug·ing.

to use rouge.

Origin of rouge

1475–85; < French: red < Latin rubeus; akin to red¹

Related formsun·rouged, adjective

Can be confusedrogue rouge

rouge

[roozh]

adjective French.

red; noting the red numbers in roulette.

Compare noir.

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

Related Words for rouge

paint, makeup, cosmetic, red, dye

Examples from the Web for rouge

Contemporary Examples of rouge

No amount of rouge will ever camouflage rhetoric and sophistry.
Letter to a Young Critic: William Giraldi Defends True Criticism
William Giraldi
September 5, 2012

Historical Examples of rouge

Her face was ghastly, save for the trace of rouge; her eyes were red-rimmed.
K
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Had she got the rouge a trifle brighter on one cheek than on the other?
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter
Rouge was born in Silesia in 1813 and died in October, 1887.
The Works of Whittier, Volume IV (of VII)
John Greenleaf Whittier
He was accused of putting on an imperceptible touch of rouge.
The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete
Duc de Saint-Simon
From red that she had been, she was now ashen under her rouge.
The Lion's Skin
Rafael Sabatini

British Dictionary definitions for rouge

rouge

noun

a red powder, used as a cosmetic for adding redness to the cheeks

short for jeweller's rouge

verb (tr)

to apply rouge to

Word Origin for rouge

C18: from French: red, from Latin rubeus

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 rouge

1753, in cosmetic sense, "blush," from French rouge "red coloring matter," noun use of adjective "red" (12c.), from Latin rubeus, related to ruber "red" (see red). Replaced native paint in this sense. The verb is attested from 1777. Related: Rouged; rouging. The same word had been borrowed from French in Middle English with the sense "red color; red" (early 15c.).