Adjacent Words

Cinnabar definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CINNABAR, n. Red sulphuret of mercury. Native cinnabar is an ore of quicksilver, moderately compact, very heavy, and of an elegant striated red color. It is called native vermilion, and its chief use is in painting. The intensity of its color is reduced by bruising and dividing it into small parts. It is found amorphous, or under some imitative form, or crystalized. Factitious cinnabar is a mixture of mercury and sulphur sublimed, and thus reduced into a fine red glebe.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of a vivid red to reddish-orange color [syn: vermilion, vermillion, cinnabar, Chinese-red] n
1: a heavy reddish mineral consisting of mercuric sulfide; the chief source of mercury
2: large red-and-black European moth; larvae feed on leaves of ragwort; introduced into United States to control ragwort [syn: cinnabar, cinnabar moth, Callimorpha jacobeae]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English cynabare, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French sinopre, from Latin cinnabaris, from Greek kinnabari, of non-Indo-European origin; akin to Arabic zinjafr cinnabar Date: 14th century 1. artificial red mercuric sulfide used especially as a pigment 2. a red mineral consisting of native mercuric sulfide HgS that is the only important ore of mercury 3. a deep vivid red • cinnabarine adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a bright red mineral form of mercuric sulphide from which mercury is obtained. 2 vermilion. 3 a moth (Callimorpha jacobaeae) with reddish marked wings. Etymology: ME f. L cinnabaris f. Gk kinnabari, of oriental orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cinnabar Cin"na*bar, n. [L. cinnabaris, Gr. ?; prob. of Oriental origin; cf. Per. qinb[=a]r, Hind. shangarf.] 1. (Min.) Red sulphide of mercury, occurring in brilliant red crystals, and also in red or brown amorphous masses. It is used in medicine. 2. The artificial red sulphide of mercury used as a pigment; vermilion. Cinnabar Gr[ae]corum. [L. Graecorum, gen. pl., of the Greeks.] (Med.) Same as Dragon's blood. Green cinnabar, a green pigment consisting of the oxides of cobalt and zinc subjected to the action of fire. Hepatic cinnabar (Min.), an impure cinnabar of a liver-brown color and submetallic luster.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Red sulphuret of mercury (native), bi-sulphuret of mercury. 2. Vermilion, red sulphuret of mercury (artificial). 3. Dragon's blood (juice of the Calamus draco).