Pink Meaning
/ˈpɪŋk/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA color reminiscent of pinks, the flowers.
nounA color reminiscent of pinks, the flowers., Magenta, the colour evoked by red and blue light when combined.
Sentence Examples
I'm tickled pink about winning 10,000 yen at the horse races.
The boss called Jim into his office and gave him his pink slip.
Who is the girl in the pink dress?
CEFR Practice Quiz
The nursery room was decorated with ____ curtains to match the rose-themed wallpaper.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She painted the nursery a soft ____ color and decorated it with floral curtains and white furniture.
Word Origin & History
Origin uncertain; perhaps from Dutch pinken (“to blink”) or the English verb pink from the same source. Perhaps from the notion of the petals being pinked. An earlier word for similar flesh-like colors, mostly displaced by pink, was incarnation ([1300s]; see Etymonline) and carnation.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 228:
"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."
— 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:
"Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy."
— 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]:
"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."
— 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 23:
"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."
— 1986, Michael J. O'Shea, James Joyce and Heraldry, SUNY, page 69:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The nursery room was decorated with ____ curtains to match the rose-themed wallpaper.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She painted the nursery a soft ____ color and decorated it with floral curtains and white furniture.