Definitions

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

  • noun Vermilion or a similar bright red color.
  • noun Gilded silver, bronze, or copper.
  • adjective Bright red in color.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bright red; vermilion; the color of vermilion. Also used adjeetively, and frequently as the first element of a compound.
  • noun Silver gilt.
  • noun In gilding, a liquid composed of arnotto, gamboge, vermilion, dragon's-blood, salt of tartar, and saffron, boiled in water and applied to a surface that is to be gilded, to give luster to the gold.
  • noun A crimson-red garnet inclining slightly to orange: a jewelers' name.

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

  • noun Poetic & R. Vermilion; also, the color of vermilion, a bright, beautiful red.
  • noun Silver gilt or gilt bronze.
  • noun A liquid composition applied to a gilded surface to give luster to the gold.

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

  • adjective poetic Bright scarlet, vermilion.
  • adjective poetic Specifically of faces, lips etc.: red, ruddy, healthy-looking.
  • noun poetic Vermilion; bright red.
  • noun silver gilt or gilt bronze.
  • noun A liquid composition applied to a gilded surface to give luster to the gold.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English vermail, from Old French vermeil, from Late Latin vermiculus, a kind of red worm, from Latin, grub, diminutive of vermis, worm; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French vermeil ("vermilion"), from Latin vermiculus, from Latin vermiculus (a little worm), the coccus Indicus, from vermis (a worm)

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Examples

  • We decorated the State Dining Room with white roses in vermeil vases and used the gold-edged Clinton china.

    Spoken from the Heart Laura Bush 2010

  • Past the gilded harp and the bamboo chairs awaiting arrangement, we march upstairs to the East Room, where the patina of history these are the famous portraits of George and Martha Washington, these are the iconic nineteenth-century chandeliers has been freshened for the evening with flowers for the tables and arrangements of cacti for the mantles, with the Clinton china and vermeil flatware and tiny gilded eagle place card holders sans cards.

    Mayhill Fowler: A Citizen Journalist Covers an Obama State Dinner [PHOTOS] Mayhill Fowler 2010

  • Past the gilded harp and the bamboo chairs awaiting arrangement, we march upstairs to the East Room, where the patina of history (these are the famous portraits of George and Martha Washington, these are the iconic nineteenth-century chandeliers) has been freshened for the evening with flowers for the tables and arrangements of cacti for the mantles, with the Clinton china and vermeil flatware and tiny gilded eagle place card holders sans cards.

    Mayhill Fowler: A Citizen Journalist Covers an Obama State Dinner [PHOTOS] 2010

  • Guests also helped themselves to the vermeil eagle place card holders.

    Spoken from the Heart Laura Bush 2010

  • Guests also helped themselves to the vermeil eagle place card holders.

    Spoken from the Heart Laura Bush 2010

  • Past the gilded harp and the bamboo chairs awaiting arrangement, we march upstairs to the East Room, where the patina of history (these are the famous portraits of George and Martha Washington, these are the iconic nineteenth-century chandeliers) has been freshened for the evening with flowers for the tables and arrangements of cacti for the mantles, with the Clinton china and vermeil flatware and tiny gilded eagle place card holders sans cards.

    Mayhill Fowler: A Citizen Journalist Covers an Obama State Dinner [PHOTOS] 2010

  • The Green Room's bouquet was in a vermeil bamboo-motif container acquired by Jackie Kennedy.

    The White House's new florist in chief is boldly creating blooms with a view 2010

  • At the May state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderón, prickly pear cactus showed up in vermeil wine coolers, and Dowling also tucked a few among the in the centerpieces of fuchsia roses and Cattleya orchids.

    White House florist shows Obamas' relaxed style 2010

  • At the May state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderón, prickly pear cactus showed up in vermeil wine coolers, and Dowling also tucked a few among the centerpieces of fuchsia roses and cattleya orchids.

    The White House's new florist in chief is boldly creating blooms with a view 2010

  • We decorated the State Dining Room with white roses in vermeil vases and used the gold-edged Clinton china.

    Spoken from the Heart Laura Bush 2010

Comments

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  • What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that

    Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the Morn?

    Milton, Comus

    December 16, 2006