pink

• (UK) enPR: pĭngk, IPA^(key): /pɪŋk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɪŋk/, [pʰɪŋk]

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Various shades of pink

Pinks: carnation cultivars

Two doors in different shades of pink (left: peach, right: bubblegum)

Origin uncertain; perhaps from Dutch pincken (“blink”) or the English verb pink from the same source.[1] Perhaps from the notion of the petals being pinked.

pink (plural pinks)

1. A colour reminiscent of pinks, the flowers. [from 17th c.]

   My new dress is a wonderful shade of pink.

   pink:  

   light pink:  

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 228:

     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.

   1. Magenta, the colour evoked by red and blue light when combined.
   2. Pale red.
2. Any of various flowers of that colour in the genus Dianthus, sometimes called carnations. [from 16th c.]

   This garden in particular has a beautiful bed of pinks.

3. (dated) A perfect example; excellence, perfection; the embodiment of some quality. [from 16th c.]

   Your hat, madam, is the very pink of fashion.

   • 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]:

     Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.

4. Hunting pink; scarlet, as worn by hunters. [from 18th c.]
   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 23:

     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.

   • 1986, Michael J. O'Shea, James Joyce and Heraldry, SUNY, page 69:

     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.

5. (snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, coloured pink, with a value of 6 points. [from 19th c.]

   Oh dear, he's left himself snookered behind the pink.

6. (slang) An unlettered and uncultured, but relatively prosperous, member of the middle classes; compare Babbitt, bourgeoisie.
7. Alternative form of pinko
   • 1981, Edwin R. Bayley, quoting Ben Hibbs, Joe McCarthy and the Press, page 163:

     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.

8. (slang) The vagina or vulva.
   • 2020 March 23, Mike Hatch, The Dumb Class: Boomer Junior High, Mike Hatch H&A Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:

     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.”

pink (comparative pinker, superlative pinkest)

1. Having a colour between red and white; pale red.
2. Of a fox-hunter's jacket: scarlet.
3. Having conjunctivitis.
4. By comparison to red (communist), supportive of socialist ideas but not actually socialist or communist.
   • 1976, Bhalchandra Pundlik Adarkar, The Future of the Constitution: A Critical Analysis:

     The word "socialist" has so many connotations that it can cover almost anything from pink liberalism to red-red communism.

5. (informal) Relating to women or girls.

   pink-collar

   pink job

6. (informal) Relating to homosexuals as a group within society.

   the pink economy

   pink pound

   pink dollar

   pink triangle

   • 1991 August 24, Lori Nairne, “Whose Parade Is It, Anyway?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 6, page 5:

     The lesbian and gay movement must decide whether the Parade is for celebrating how far we've come as we further our struggle for liberation, or whether it is going to be just another profit-making industry, supporting lesbian and gay careerism and becoming part of the Establishment (albeit a pink one!)

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. (intransitive) To become pink in color, to redden.
   • 2014, Teresa Carpenter, Her Boss by Arrangement‎, page 136:

     The woman’s pale skin pinked as she shook her head. “No. It’s out of my budget. Come on, Sammy”

2. (transitive) To turn (something) pink.
   • 1961, Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana‎, New Directions Publishing, published 2009, act II, page 46:

     They are all nearly nude, pinked and bronzed by the sun.

   • 1985, Carl Sagan, chapter 3, in Contact, Simon & Schuster, published 1997, page 57:

     The rabbits, still lining the roadside, but now pinked by dawn, craned their necks to follow her departure.

3. (transitive) To turn (a topaz or other gemstone) pink by the application of heat.
   • 2012, David Federman, Modern Jeweler’s Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones‎, page 227:

     Because heating is relatively easy to perform once one is trained to do it, it can be assumed that any pink topaz from Brazil, the gem’s main modern producer, is colored more by man than nature. […] Relatively few stones from Brazil have this trace element in enough quantity for what dealers call “pinking.”

• (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)}

Pinks: common minnows

Unknown. Some lexicographers suggest comparison to regional German Pinke (“minnow; small salmon”), but this is not widely accepted.[2]

pink (plural pinks)

1. (regional) The common minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus. [from 15th c.]
2. (regional) A young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, before it becomes a smolt; a parr. [from 17th c.]

Borrowed from Middle Dutch pincke. Compare French pinque.

pink (plural pinks)

1. (now obsolete) A narrow boat. [from 15th c.]

Probably ultimately imitative,[3] or from Dutch pingelen (“to do fine needlework”) or Low German [Term?]; compare Low German pinken (“hit, peck”) and Pinke (“big needle”).

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. To decorate a piece of clothing or fabric by adding holes or by scalloping the fringe.
2. To prick with a sword.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     ‘Pugh!’ says she, ‘you have pinked a man in a duel, that's all.’

   • 1999 [1844], Jacques Le Clercq, The Three Musketeers, translation of original by Alexandre Dumas, page 187:

     Within three seconds D'Artagnan pinked him thrice, dedicating each thrust as he dealt it. “One for Athos!" he cried. “One for Porthos!" and at the last, “one for Aramis!”

3. To wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule.
   • 1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 127:

     “Young man, if you have no authority, let me speak to someone who has! Put me through to Mr. Berquist.” The stooge suddenly lost his smile and Jubal thought gleefully that he had at last pinked him.

• pinkers
• pinking shears

pink (plural pinks)

1. (obsolete) A small hole made by puncturing something, as with a rapier, dagger, or pinking iron.
   1. (obsolete) A small hole or puncture made by a sharp, slender instrument such as a rapier, poniard or dagger, or (by extension) a bullet; a stab.
      • 1601, Weever, Mirr. Mart., C j:

        At a great word she will her poynard draw, Looke for the pincke if once thou giue the lye.

      • 1607, Thomas Middleton, Your Five Gallants, iii 5:

        A freebooter’s pink, sir, three or four inches deep.

      • 1638, “Lady's Trial”, in Ford, III. i:

        The fellow's a shrewd fellow at a pink.

      • 1885 May 13, Pall Mall G., 4/I:

        He is spotted with marks of stabs and revolver 'pinks', and he takes all his wounds quite as matter of course.

   2. (obsolete) A small hole or eyelet punched in a garment for decoration, as with a pinking iron; a scallop.
      • 1512, Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot, IV 215:

        Item,..for iiil* powdringis and pinkis to the sam goune, .xij s

      • 1598, Florio, Tagliuzzi:

        small pinks, cuts or iagges in clothes

      • 1599, Ben Jonson, Cynthia's Rev., volume iv:

        Is this pinke of equall proportion to this cut?

      • c. 1632–1641, Ben Jonson, Magnetick Lady, iii. 4:

        You had rather have / An ulcer in your body than a pink / More in your clothes.

Onomatopoeic.

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. Of a motor car, to emit a high "pinking" noise, usually as a result of ill-set ignition timing for the fuel used (in a spark ignition engine).
2. Of a musical instrument, to sound a very high-pitched, short note.
   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 590:

     And then the record changed, a piano pinking high a Poulenc-like theme.

Borrowed from Dutch pinken.

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. (obsolete) To wink; to blink.
   • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, “A Fox and a Cock”, in Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists‎, page 409:

     A Hungry Fox that had got a Cock in his Eye, and could not tell how to come at him ; cast himself at his Length upon the Ground, and there he lay winking and pinking as if he had Sore Eyes.

pink (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Half-shut; winking.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:

     Come, thou monarch of the vine,
     Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!
     In thy vats our cares be drowned,
     With thy grapes our hairs be crowned.

Unknown. Attested from the late 15th century.[1]

pink (uncountable)

1. (historical) Any of various lake pigments or dyes in yellow, yellowish green, or brown shades made with plant coloring and a metallic oxide base.
   • 1816, Pierre François Tingry, The Painter and Varnisher's Guide‎, page 245:

     To make Dutch pink, boil the stems of woad in a solution of alum, and then mix the liquor with clay, marl, or chalk, which will become mixed with the colour of the decoction

   • 2008, Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Pigment Compendium‎, page 156:

     Carlyle (2001) lists from her study of nineteenth century British documentary sources yellow carmine, Dutch pink, English pink and yellow lake in descending order of intensity.

• knip

Borrowed from English pink.

pink

1. pink coloured

• IPA^(key): /pɪŋk/

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• Hyphenation: pink
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Of obscure origin. Sometimes compared to Etymology 2 and 3 below in the sense of "something small." Perhaps related to pin or otherwise borrowed from a substrate language with unshifted p-.

pink m (plural pinken, diminutive pinkje n)

1. pinkie (little finger)

Unknown.

pink m (plural pinken, diminutive pinkje n)

1. one-year-old calf, a bovine yearling

From Middle Dutch pinke, of unkown origin. Connections to Etymology 1 above ("pinkie") in the sense of "elongated object" remain purely hypothetical. Compare Proto-West Germanic *pinnā.

pink m (plural pinken, diminutive pinkje n)

1. a pink (historic coastal fishing boat with one mast, often landed on beaches)

• → English: pink
• → French: pinque
  • → Catalan: pinc
• → Italian: pinco
• → Portuguese: pinque

• bij de pinken zijn

• knip

From Middle Low German benk, most likely influenced by Swedish bänk.

pink (genitive pingi, partitive pinki)

1. bench

   Tšaikovski pink

   the Tchaikovsky bench

Borrowed from English pink.

• IPA^(key): /pɪŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pink

pink (strong nominative masculine singular pinker, comparative (very rare) pinker, superlative (very rare) am pinksten)

1. coloured in a strong shade of pink
   • 2009, Mark Billingham (English text) and Isabella Bruckmaier (translated from English into German), Das Blut der Opfer. Ein Inspector-Thorne-Roman, Goldmann:

     Die unglaublich langen Beine des Mädchens wurden durch Strümpfe und ein pink Tutu betont.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• For paler shades, German does not use pink but rosa.
• Pink is generally declined like a normal adjective: eine pinke Jacke (“a pink jacket”). Some prescriptive grammars and dictionaries like Duden state that declined forms are colloquial and that pink should be invariable (eine pink Jacke). However, such usage is very rare and would even strike a great deal of native speakers as ungrammatical. See the various corpora at www.dwds.de, which include hundreds of attestations for the declined forms, but at most a handful for invariable use in attributive position.

• “pink” in Duden online
• “pink” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Borrowed from English pink.

pink m or f

1. hot pink (a deep vibrant pink color)

pink m or f

1. hot pink (having a deep vibrant pink color)

See the verb pinka (“to pee”)

pink n (uncountable)

1. (slang) pee

• pinka

• knip