gamboge

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Any of several species of trees of the genus Garcinia found in South and Southeastern Asia, especially Garcinia xanthochymus.

   “Clusiaceæ, or Guttiferæ, a natural order of trees or shrubs belonging to the Dicotyledons (division Thalamifloræ), natives of the humid tropics of S. America. [...] Most of the plants have acrid properties, and yield a yellow resin. Among the chief and common plants of the order are Gambooge (q.v.), Mangosteen fruit (Garcinia Mangostana), [...]”

2. (countable, uncountable)The resin of the gamboge tree; a preparation of the resin used as a pigment or for medicinal purposes.

   “Gamboge is one of the firſt yellows, which may be made to produce five or six ſorts of Green with verdegreaſe, according as the gambooge is in the greater or leſſer proportion; if it abounds, it will make a tolerable oak green, and being mixt with a greater quantity of verdegreaſe, it will make a fine graſs Green.”

   “Chestnut wood, dyed with saffron, or old chestnut, dyed with gambooge, imitates dark mahogany.”

   “That the papers already communicated on this subject might be rendered more complete, we have now added thereto a brief account of such other dyeing substances as are in general use. [...] Dyes of animal origin, catechus, gamboges, and other similar products are excluded. [...] gamboge and dragon's blood can scarce merit the title of dye-stuffs.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A deep yellow colour.

   “I have always heard, and red, that Nature is one of the chief beauties of poetry; and lo! behold an example!—for I merely turned into rhyme the pitiful ravings of two love-lorn maids, most tenderly sensible to the charms of a pair of black moustachios relieved with deep gamboges.”

   “My attention was fixed for the moment on two fair Hellenes; then on an elderly female with black head-dress fringed with gambooge, and a smart lassie in a hat, with nez retroussé and sprightly eyes.”

   “The many human figures that went to and fro were hardly to be distinguished from the ground they trod They were coated with earth, clay-clad in ochre and gamboge”

   “The colour scheme of the North British Railway—dark gamboge for the engines and lake for the coaches—looked very smart when new and clean, but these shades did not possess good wearing qualities.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of a deep yellow colour.

   “The cab stopped, and out jumped a man in a coarse Petersham great coat, whitey-brown neckerchief, faded black suit, gambooge-coloured top-boots, and one of those large crowned hats, formerly seldom met with, but now very generally patronised by gentlemen and costermongers.”

   “Beg your pardon, Sir, but this here officer o' yourn in the gambooge tops, 'ull never earn a decent livin' as a master o' the ceremonies any vere.”

   “[Analcis fragariae] Larva, (Fig. 14 a)—White with back arched Lamellicorn-fashion. Head gamboges yellow, glabrous, with some faint transverse striations above mouth;[…]”

   “[W]e can see, about a hundred yards behind, the dilapidated house: old, still yellowish—"gambooge coloured," [Charles] Lamb called it—two-storeyed, with tall, rickety windows.”

   “Its gay gambooge-coloured flowers, enveloped in an elusive fragrance, are as charming as anything in the Suffructicosa section.”