pink
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: pĭngk
ipa: /pɪŋk/
ipa: /pɪŋk/
ipa: [pʰɪŋk]
rhymes: -ɪŋk
Forms: form: pinks
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps from Dutch pinken (“blink”) or the English verb pink from the same source. Perhaps from the notion of the petals being pinked.
Senses: examples: text: My new dress is a wonderful shade of pink.
text: Jasper couldn't have known they'd been overheard upstairs, but his little smirk coming and going invited you to guess he'd been up to something. He had the pink of sex about him still.
ref: 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 228:
text: Both halves feature lyrics that are so teen-girly they sound like they were written in pink ink in a padlocked diary with hearts and frowny faces for punctuation.
ref: 2016 March 24, Darryl Sterdan, “ZAYN’s ‘Mind of Mine’ and Gwen Stefani’s ‘This is What the Truth Feels Like’ top this week’s new music”, in The Toronto Star, archived from the original on 17 Jun 2018:
glosses: A color reminiscent of pinks, the flowers.
glosses: A color reminiscent of pinks, the flowers.
Magenta, the colour evoked by red and blue light when combined.
glosses: A color reminiscent of pinks, the flowers.
Pale red.
examples: text: This garden in particular has a beautiful bed of pinks.
glosses: Any of various flowers of that colour in the genus Dianthus, sometimes called carnations.
examples: text: Your hat, madam, is the very pink of fashion.
text: Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
glosses: A perfect example; excellence, perfection; the embodiment of some quality.
examples: text: I had taken it for granted that there would be people ‘in pink’, but these enormous confident strangers overwhelmed me with the visible authenticity of their brick-red coats.
ref: 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 23:
text: it is interesting to note the curious legend that the pink of the hunting field is not due to any optical advantage but to an entirely different reason.
ref: 1986, Michael J. O'Shea, James Joyce and Heraldry, SUNY, page 69:
glosses: Hunting pink; scarlet, as worn by hunters.
examples: text: The pinks stand about the inn-door lighting cigars and waiting to see us start, while their hacks are led up and down the market-place, on which the inn looks.
ref: 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:
glosses: A huntsman.
examples: text: Oh dear, he's left himself snookered behind the pink.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
snooker
sports
glosses: One of the colour balls used in snooker, coloured pink, with a value of 6 points.
glosses: An unlettered and uncultured, but relatively prosperous, member of the middle classes; compare Babbitt, bourgeoisie.
examples: text: My own guess is that there are some pinks in the State Department and in other government departments and agencies, and of course they should be found and ousted; but it seems to me that this can be done without besmirching innocent people and without making such broadside charges that people will lose faith in all government.
ref: 1981, Edwin R. Bayley, quoting Ben Hibbs, Joe McCarthy and the Press, page 163:
glosses: Alternative form of pinko.
examples: text: Then Eddie did what he calls, 'Two in the pink, one in the stink.' “I held up my right forefinger and middle finger and said, “Two.” Then I held up my ring finger and said “One. Two in the pussy, one in the ass.”
ref: 2020 March 23, Mike Hatch, The Dumb Class: Boomer Junior High, Mike Hatch H&A Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:
glosses: The vagina or vulva.