scarlet

[skahr-lit]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR scarlet ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a bright-red color inclining toward orange.

cloth or clothing of this color.

adjective

of the color scarlet.

flagrantly offensive: Their sins were scarlet.

Origin of scarlet

1200–50; Middle English < Old French escarlate < Medieval Latin scarlata, scarletum, perhaps < Arabic saqirlāṭ, siqillāṭ < Medieval Greek sigillátos < Latin sigillātus decorated with patterns in relief; see sigillate

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

Related Words for scarlet

rose, flaming, maroon, glowing, cardinal, crimson, coral, wine, red, flush, floozy, strumpet, hussy, broad, jade, slut, trollop, vamp, hooker, harlot

Examples from the Web for scarlet

Contemporary Examples of scarlet

Gang tattoos are still inked onto his face, like scarlet letters.
How Good Dads Can Change the World
Gary Barker, PhD, Michael Kaufman
January 6, 2015
With scarlet lips and chemical red hair, the erstwhile agent is still making headlines in the West.
Ex-Spy Anna Chapman, From Russia Unloved
Anna Nemtsova
November 27, 2014
“I don't know what they want me as a witness for,” he told reporters, whom he received in scarlet pajamas in the hospital.
Portrait of the Consummate Con Man
John Lardner
May 17, 2014
The end credit scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier introduces the new Avengers the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
A Guide to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the Twins Teased at the End of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
Rich Goldstein
April 5, 2014
Olson and Taylor-Johnson have alluded to some of the complexities in the Scarlet Witch/Quicksilver relationship.
A Guide to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the Twins Teased at the End of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
Rich Goldstein
April 5, 2014

Historical Examples of scarlet

There was an enigmatic smile bending the scarlet lips as she answered.
Within the Law
Marvin Dana
As it was, his face was scarlet, when he turned it away from the desk and towards the boys.
Tip Lewis and His Lamp
Pansy
Sophy was unwell, was feverish; the scarlet fever had been in the neighbourhood.
Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The doctor was sent for, and pronounced it to be the scarlet fever.
Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
She took off her hat and pulled the scarlet flowers from it.
The Incomplete Amorist
E. Nesbit

British Dictionary definitions for scarlet

scarlet

noun

a vivid red colour, sometimes with an orange tinge

cloth or clothing of this colour

adjective

of the colour scarlet

sinful or immoral, esp unchaste

Word Origin for scarlet

C13: from Old French escarlate fine cloth, of unknown origin

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 scarlet

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).