pink

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pink1

▶adjective

• 1 of a colour intermediate between red and white, as of coral or salmon.

• 2 informal, often derogatory left-wing.

• 3 of or associated with homosexuals: the pink economy.

▶noun

• 1 pink colour, pigment, or material.

  ■ (also hunting pink) the red clothing or material worn by fox-hunters.

• 2 (the pink) informal the best condition or degree.

• 3 informal, often derogatory a left-wing person.

– derivatives
pinkish adjective,
pinkly adverb,
pinkness noun.

– origin C17: from pink2.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pink2

▶noun a plant with sweet-smelling pink or white flowers and slender grey-green leaves. [Genus Dianthus.]

– origin C16: perh. short for pink eye, lit. ‘small or half-shut eye’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pink3

▶verb

• 1 cut a scalloped or zigzag edge on.

• 2 archaic decorate.

– origin C16 (in the sense ‘pierce or nick slightly’): cf. Low Ger. pinken ‘strike, peck’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pink4

▶verb Brit. (of a vehicle engine) make rattling sounds as a result of over-rapid combustion of the fuel–air mixture in the cylinders.

– origin early 20th cent.: imitative.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pink5

▶noun historical a small square-rigged sailing ship with a narrow overhanging stern.

– origin C15: from MDu. pin(c)ke, of unknown ultimate origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pink6

▶noun dated a yellowish lake pigment made by combining vegetable colouring matter with a white base.

– origin C17: of unknown origin.