crimson

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A deep, slightly bluish red.

   “To my horror I perceived that the yellow blossoms were all dabbled with crimson.”

adj

1. Having a deep red colour.

   “Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.”

   “Her crimson dress inflames grey corridors, or flaring in a sunshaft through high branches makes of the deep green shadows a greenness darker yet, and a darkness greener.”

2. Immodest.

verb

1. (intransitive)To become crimson or deep red; to blush.

   “Eugenie's quick apprehensions seized the foul thought. Her eyes flashed—her cheek crimsoned.”

   “1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Ring” in The Poetical Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, New York and Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Volume 2, p. 662, Father. Why do you look so gravely at the tower? Miram. I never saw it yet so all ablaze With creepers crimsoning to the pinnacles,”

   “Gerty MacDowell bent down her head and crimsoned at the idea of Cissy saying an unladylike thing like that out loud she'd be ashamed of her life to say, flushing a deep rosy red, and Edy Boardman said she was sure the gentleman opposite heard what she said. But not a pin cared Ciss.”

2. (transitive)To dye with crimson or deep red; to redden.

   “Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand, Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe.”

   “Her face was crimsoned over, and she exclaimed, in a voice of the greatest emotion, “Good God! Willoughby, what is the meaning of this? […]””

   “[…] that sheetless bed (that nuptial couch of love and grief) with the pale and bloody corpse in its patched and weathered gray crimsoning the bare mattress […]”