Pink | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Pink, n.

noun

n. [See PINK, v. i. Cf. Fr. œillet, an eyelet and a pink, diminutive of œil, eye.]

Sense 1. An eye, or a small eye;—now disused except in composition; as, pink-eyed; pink-eye. Shak.

Sense 2. (Bot.) A plant, and its flower, of the genus Dianthus, common in gardens. “The white pink and the pansy freaked with jet.” Milton.

Sense 3. A color resulting from the combination of a pure vivid red with more or less white;—so called from the common color of the flower. Dryden.

Sense 4. That which is supremely excellent. “A pink of courtesy.” Shak.

Sense 5. A fish, the minnow;—so called from the color of its abdomen in summer.

Sense 6. [D. pink, Fr. pinque, It. & Sp. pinco: hence, pink-sterned.] A ship with a very narrow stern. “Detained in harbor by a revenue pink.” Spenser.

Pink salt, a double chloride of tin and ammonium, used as a mordant by dyers

Pĭnk, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. PINKED (pĭnkt); p. pr. & vb. n. PINKING.] 1. To work in eyelet-holes; to pierce with small holes; to cut, as cloth or paper, in small scallops or angles; to work in rounded or angular figures. “A doublet of black velvet . . . pinked upon scarlet satin.” W. Scott. The Turks did use to wonder much at our Englishmen for pinking, or cutting, their clothes. Fuller.

To stab; to pierce. Addison.
To dye of a pink color.

Pĭnk, v. i.

verbintransitive

[D. pinken, pinkoogen, to twinkle with the eyes, Prov. Ger. pinkern, L. Ger. plinkogen.] To wink. [Obs.] L'Estrange.