crimson

Late Middle English cremesyn, from obsolete French cramoisin or Old Spanish cremesin, from Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz), from Classical Persian کرمست (kirmist), from Middle Persian; see Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš. Cognate with Sanskrit कृमिज (kṛmija). Doublet of kermes; also see carmine.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪmzən/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪmzən/, /ˈkɹɪmsən/
• Rhymes: -ɪmzən, -ɪmsən

crimson (countable and uncountable, plural crimsons)

1. A deep, slightly bluish red.

   crimson:  

   • 1904 January 30, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Priory School”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

     To my horror I perceived that the yellow blossoms were all dabbled with crimson.

crimson (comparative more crimson, superlative most crimson)

1. Having a deep red colour.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:

     Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast:

     Her crimson dress inflames grey corridors, or flaring in a sunshaft through high branches makes of the deep green shadows a greenness darker yet, and a darkness greener.

2. Immodest. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

crimson (third-person singular simple present crimsons, present participle crimsoning, simple past and past participle crimsoned)

1. (intransitive) To become crimson or deep red; to blush.
   • 1841, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter XIII, in Night and Morning‎:

     Eugenie's quick apprehensions seized the foul thought. Her eyes flashed—her cheek crimsoned.

   • 1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Ring” in The Poetical Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, New York and Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Volume 2, p. 662,

     Father. Why do you look so gravely at the tower?

     Miram. I never saw it yet so all ablaze

     With creepers crimsoning to the pinnacles,

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Gerty MacDowell bent down her head and crimsoned at the idea of Cissy saying an unladylike thing like that out loud she'd be ashamed of her life to say, flushing a deep rosy red, and Edy Boardman said she was sure the gentleman opposite heard what she said. But not a pin cared Ciss.

2. (transitive) To dye with crimson or deep red; to redden.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,
     Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe.

   • 1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 153:

     Her face was crimsoned over, and she exclaimed, in a voice of the greatest emotion, “Good God! Willoughby, what is the meaning of this? […] ”

   • 1936, William Faulkner, chapter 5, in Absalom, Absalom!‎, New York: Modern Library, published 1951, page 138:

     […] that sheetless bed (that nuptial couch of love and grief) with the pale and bloody corpse in its patched and weathered gray crimsoning the bare mattress […]

• kermes
• carmine

• (reds) red; blood red, brick red, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, carnation, cerise, cherry, cherry red, Chinese red, cinnabar, claret, crimson, damask, fire brick, fire engine red, flame, flamingo, fuchsia, garnet, geranium, gules, hot pink, incarnadine, Indian red, magenta, maroon, misty rose, nacarat, oxblood, pillar-box red, pink, Pompeian red, poppy, raspberry, red violet, rose, rouge, ruby, ruddy, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, shocking pink, stammel, strawberry, Turkey red, Venetian red, vermilion, vinaceous, vinous, violet red, wine ^{(Category: en:Reds)}

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

• microns