Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, resembling, or containing copper; coppery.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting of or containing copper; having the properties of copper.
  • Copper-colored; reddish-brown with a metallic luster.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Consisting of copper or resembling copper; coppery.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A reddish-brown color, like that of polished copper.
  • adjective Of or of the nature of copper.
  • adjective chemistry Containing copper.
  • adjective Of a reddish-brown color, like that of polished copper.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Late Latin cupreus, from cuprum, copper; see copper.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin cupreus, from cuprum ("copper").

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Examples

  • Beside this I got a rare mess of golden and silver and bright cupreous fishes, which looked like a string of jewels.

    Walden 2004

  • Face silvery; antennæ testaceous, black towards the tips, arista full as long as the thorax; thorax with three cupreous stripes; pectus silvery; abdomen with cupreous purple bands and with whitish spots along each side; legs testaceous, tarsi and hind tibiæ black; wings slightly greyish, blackish brown along the costa and about the transverse veins, veins black, fore branch of the præbrachial vein curved inward, discal transverse vein undulating; halteres testaceous.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • _ Head and pectus with white tomentum and hairs; mystax with a few black bristles; mouth and antennæ black; third joint of the latter linear, conical at the tip, longer than the first and the second together; thorax with cupreous-gilded tomentum; abdomen purple, green at the base, blue and with a row of white dots along each side; legs blue; wings brown, cinereous towards the base, veins black; halteres testaceous.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Face and pectus silvery; antennæ black, arista longer than the thorax; thorax with three broad reddish cupreous stripes; abdomen with broad cupreous purple bands; femora lutescent, tibiæ piceous, fore femora blackish towards the tips, tarsi black; wings black, tips snow-white, fore branch of the præbrachial vein slightly curved inward, discal transverse vein much curved outward; halteres tawny, with black tips.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • If we shake up the ether solution of bitter substance with an aqueous solution of acetate of copper, the ether will assume a green color, and gradually deposits a green crystalline powder, a cupreous combination of the bitter acid.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884 Various

  • Face and pectus whitish; antennæ piceous; abdomen cupreous-black, dull testaceous towards the base; hind legs black, hind tibiæ towards the base and anterior legs dull testaceous; wings blackish, paler along the hind border, veins black, præbrachial vein and discal transverse vein straight; halteres testaceous.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Head blue in front, sides of the face cupreous-purple; mouth, antennæ, and tarsi black; arista snow-white; thorax with two almost contiguous darker stripes; abdomen æneous green, with the exception of the petiole, which is very thick; wings slightly greyish, costal half black; halteres testaceous.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Vertex bluish-purple; face and pectus silvery; antennæ testaceous, arista about half the length of the body; fourth and fifth segments of the abdomen deep black with a cupreous band on the hind border of each segment, tip blue; legs and halteres testaceous; wings greyish, paler along the hind border, tips black, fore branch of the præbrachial vein slightly curved inward, discal transverse vein slightly undulating.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Beside this I got a rare mess of golden and silver and bright cupreous fishes, which looked like a string of jewels.

    Walden, or Life in the woods 1854

  • Beside this I got a rare mess of golden and silver and bright cupreous fishes, which looked like a string of jewels.

    Walden~ Chapter 17 (historical) 1854

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