Incarnadine

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪnˈkɑːnÉ™daɪn/

Origin

French incarnadine, Italian incarnadino, a variant of incarnadito ("flesh color"), from incarnato ("incarnate"), from Latin incarnari ("be made flesh"), from in + cano ("flesh").

Full definition of incarnadine

Adjective

1. Of the blood-red colour of raw flesh.
2. Of a general red colour.
• 1992, Donna Tartt, The Secret History, Basically I am a very good person.’ This from the latest serial killer – destined for the chair, they say – who, with incarnadine axe, recently dispatched half a dozen registered nurses in Texas.
• 1955, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, The chaplain glanced at the bridge table that served as his desk and saw only the abominable orange-red, pear-shaped, plum tomato he had obtained that same morning from Colonel Cathcart, still lying on its side where he had forgotten it like an indestructible and incarnadine symbol of his own ineptitude.

Noun

1. The blood-red colour of raw flesh.
2. Red in general

Verb

1. To cause to be the blood-red colour of raw flesh.
• 1611, Shakespeare, Macbeth, Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
  Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
  The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
  Making the green one red.
2. To cause to be red or crimson.