Definitions

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

  • noun A natural brown earth containing ferric oxide and manganese oxides, used as pigment.
  • noun Any of the shades of brown produced by umber in its various states.
  • adjective Of or related to umber.
  • adjective Having a brownish color.
  • transitive verb To darken with or as if with umber.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To color with umber, or as with umber; shade or darken.
  • noun Shade.
  • noun A fish, the grayling. See Thymallus.
  • noun The umber-bird.
  • noun Same as umbrel, 3.
  • noun A natural pigment somewhat resembling an ocher, but darker and browner, due to the presence of oxid of manganese.
  • Of a brown color; dark; dusky.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to umber; resembling umber; olive-brown; dark brown; dark; dusky.
  • transitive verb To color with umber; to shade or darken.
  • noun (Paint.) A brown or reddish pigment used in both oil and water colors, obtained from certain natural clays variously colored by the oxides of iron and manganese. It is commonly heated or burned before being used, and is then called burnt umber; when not heated, it is called raw umber. See Burnt umber, below.
  • noun obsolete An umbrere.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Grayling, 1.
  • noun (Zoöl.) An African wading bird (Scopus umbretta) allied to the storks and herons. It is dull dusky brown, and has a large occipital crest. Called also umbrette, umbre, and umber bird.
  • noun (Paint.) a pigment made by burning raw umber, which is changed by this process from an olive brown to a bright reddish brown.
  • noun a brown pigment obtained from lignite. See Cologne earth.

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

  • noun a brown clay, somewhat darker than ochre, which contains iron and manganese oxides.
  • noun Alternative form of umbrere.
  • adjective Of a reddish brown colour, like that of the pigment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of the color of any of various natural brown earth pigments
  • noun an earth pigment
  • noun a medium brown to dark-brown color

Etymologies

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

[French (terre d') ombre or Italian (terra di) ombra, shadow (earth), both possibly from alteration (influenced by French ombre and Italian ombra, shadow) of Latin Umbria, Umbria.]

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Examples

  • I overpainted that once with raw umber, which is a dark yellowish brown, and on top of that I put mixtures of yellow ochre, and then I scratched through all the layers with a piece of metal comb. '

    They didn’t read Pitchfork or Stereogum or Gorilla vs. Bear or Hipster Runoff Josh Spilker 2010

  • No, burnt umber, which is the colour of the tattered shorts my dad used to wear.

    May The Four Winds Blow You Safely Home 2008

  • No, burnt umber, which is the colour of the tattered shorts my dad used to wear.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • Anyway, that grass … I overpainted that once with raw umber, which is a dark yellowish brown, and on top of that I put mixtures of yellow ochre, and then I scratched through all the layers with a piece of metal comb. '

    To The Hilt Francis, Dick, 1920- 1996

  • And our flesh maketh us say to Christ, In thine umber, that is, in thy passion, in which Jesu Christ was obscure, dark and despised, we shall live by continual memory.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 1 1230-1298 1900

  • -- "Dark sooty brown above, slightly tinged with deep umber, which is most distinct on the sides of the head and neck, and in reflected light; the under parts are like the upper, only the brown tint is almost absent; the whiskers are black, and tail very sparsely haired" (_Anderson_).

    Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Robert Armitage Sterndale 1870

  • Since then there have been also discovered umber, which is an earth-colour, giallo santo, [23] the smalts both for fresco and for oils, and some vitreous greens and yellows, wherein the painters of that age were lacking.

    Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects Vol. 01 (of 10), Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi Giorgio Vasari 1542

  • To compensate for its thus fading, it should be mixed with pigments that are permanent, such as umber and lamp black.

    Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists George Field

  • Despite concerns about inflation and corruption, the n umber of foreign companies that invested in India rose to an unprecedented $16.9 billion in the first quarter of this year.

    Week Ahead: Muthoot, RIL Will Be Watched Closely Deals India Staff 2011

  • Less expensive than those in the castle, the room had umber walls, peridot-colored quilted drapes and a fireplace topped by a plasma TV.

    Estate of the Wild Rachel Dodes 2011

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