scarlet
- a bright-red color inclining toward orange.
- cloth or clothing of this color.
- of the color scarlet.
- flagrantly offensive: Their sins were scarlet.
Origin of scarlet
Related Words
roseflamingmaroonglowingcardinalcrimsoncoralwineredflushscarletfloozystrumpethussybroadjadesluttrollopvamphookerExamples from the Web for scarlet
Contemporary Examples
Gang tattoos are still inked onto his face, like scarlet letters.
With scarlet lips and chemical red hair, the erstwhile agent is still making headlines in the West.
“I don't know what they want me as a witness for,” he told reporters, whom he received in scarlet pajamas in the hospital.
The end credit scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier introduces the new Avengers the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
Olson and Taylor-Johnson have alluded to some of the complexities in the Scarlet Witch/Quicksilver relationship.
Historical Examples
There was an enigmatic smile bending the scarlet lips as she answered.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
As it was, his face was scarlet, when he turned it away from the desk and towards the boys.
Sophy was unwell, was feverish; the scarlet fever had been in the neighbourhood.
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
The doctor was sent for, and pronounced it to be the scarlet fever.
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
She took off her hat and pulled the scarlet flowers from it.
The Incomplete AmoristE. Nesbit
scarlet
- a vivid red colour, sometimes with an orange tinge
- cloth or clothing of this colour
- of the colour scarlet
- sinful or immoral, esp unchaste
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for scarlet
n.
mid-13c., "rich cloth" (often, but not necessarily, bright red), from a shortened form of Old French escarlate "scarlet (color), top-quality fabric" (12c., Modern French écarlate), from Medieval Latin scarlatum "scarlet, cloth of scarlet" (also source of Italian scarlatto, Spanish escarlate), probably via a Middle Eastern source (cf. Arabic siqillat "fine cloth"), from Medieval Greek and ultimately from Late Latin sigillatus "clothes and cloth decorated with small symbols or figures," literally "sealed," past participle of sigillare, from the root of sign (n.).
In English as the name of a color, attested from late 14c. As an adjective from c.1300. Scarlet lady, etc. (Isa. i:18, Rev. xvii:1-5) is from notion of "red with shame or indignation." Scarlet fever is from 1670s, so called for its characteristic rash. Scarlet oak, a New World tree, attested from 1590s. Scarlet letter traces to Hawthorne's story (1850). German Scharlach, Dutch scharlaken show influence of words cognate with English lake (n.2).