vermilion

or ver·mil·lion

[ ver-mil-yuh n ]

/ vərˈmɪl yən /

noun

a brilliant scarlet red.

a bright-red, water-insoluble pigment consisting of mercuric sulfide, once obtained from cinnabar, now usually produced by the reaction of mercury and sulfur.

adjective

of the color vermilion.

verb (used with object)

to color with or as if with vermilion.

Nearby words

Origin of vermilion

1250–1300; Middle English vermilioun, vermillon < Anglo-French, Old French verm(e)illon, equivalent to vermeil vermeil + -on noun suffix

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

Examples from the Web for vermillion

Araks, Beatrice Bralett, Aaron Panty in Vermillion, $115, $91.
7 Last-Minute Valentine’s Day Gifts Your Valentine Would Actually Want|Misty White Sidell|February 13, 2013|DAILY BEAST
And the vermillion wall covering in the library that seemed very 19th-century bordello.
Putting Words in Gore Vidal’s Mouth—a Copywriter Recalls the 1982 Senate Campaign|Robert Chandler|August 6, 2012|DAILY BEAST
In a vermillion fishtail gown and a bright green headdress almost a foot high, she commands the room—Queen for the day.
A Brilliant Film About the Women Who Saved Liberia|Rachel Syme|November 15, 2008|DAILY BEAST
The table service was of vermillion and silver; that of the dessert, I think, all gold.
Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the years 1826, 1827, 1828 and 1829.|Hermann Pckler-Muskau

Her forehead is also rubbed with vermillion, the emblem of a female whose husband is alive.
The Hindoos as they Are|Shib Chunder Bose
Daylight never penetrated the voluptuous retreat, which only a vermillion chandelier illumined with its candles of perfumed wax.
The Pocket Bible or Christian the Printer|Eugne Sue
When, however, there remained to be searched only a wide strip bordering the Vermillion, she remained at home.
The Biography of a Prairie Girl|Eleanor Gates
Lying near the mouth of the Vermillion river, is a wide-awake, thriving city, beautifully located on the banks of the Mississippi.
Fifty Years In The Northwest|William Henry Carman Folsom

British Dictionary definitions for vermillion

vermilion

vermillion

/ (vəˈmɪljən) /

noun

a bright red to reddish-orange colour
(as adjective)a vermilion car

mercuric sulphide, esp when used as a bright red pigment; cinnabar

Word Origin for vermilion

C13: from Old French vermeillon, from vermeil

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 vermillion

vermilion

late 13c., "cinnabar, red dye," from Anglo-French and Old French vermeillon, from vermeil (see vermeil). As an adjective, from 1580s.