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ink(1) (iou)



ink noun1. ME.
[Old French enque (mod. encre) from late Latin encau(s)tum from Greek egkauston purple ink, from egkaiein burn in.]
Coloured fluid used in writing with a pen on paper etc.; coloured viscous paste used to mark paper etc. in printing, duplicating, writing with a ball-pen, etc.; an example of this. ME.
black ink, blue ink, invisible ink, etc. marking-ink, printer's ink, printing ink, sympathetic ink, writing-ink, etc. Indian ink: see INDIAN adjective. Japan ink: see JAPAN noun. red ink: see RED adjective.
M. Milner I..made a fairly accurate drawing of them in ink and oil chalks. J. Crace He sits with clean parchment, newly mixed inks.
The black liquid ejected by cuttlefish and other cephalopods to assist in escaping predators, etc., and from which sepia is obtainable. L16.
G. Durrell Fishermen..with..dark stains of octopus ink on their shirts.
Cheap wine, esp. red wine. Cf. INKED 2. slang (chiefly US & Austral.). E20.
Comb.: ink ball Printing History a hand-held rounded pad used for inking type; inkberry a low-growing N. American holly, Ilex glabra, with black berries and nearly thornless leaves; ink block Printing History a block or table on which ink was spread before being taken up by rollers or ink balls; ink-blot test (an example of) the Rorschach test; ink-cap any of several fungi of the genus Coprinus, of which the gills dissolve into a black liquid after maturation; SHAGGY ink-cap; ink-fish a cuttlefish or squid; ink-jet printer a printer in which characters and other marks are formed by a jet of ink projected on to the paper etc.; ink-pad an ink-soaked pad, usu. in a box, used for inking a rubber stamp; inkpot a small pot for holding writing-ink; inkshed joc. [after bloodshed] the shedding or spilling of ink; consumption or waste of ink in writing; ink-slinger derog. a professional writer; inkstand a stand for one or more bottles to hold ink, often with a pen-tray etc.; inkweed Austral. & NZ a tropical American pokeweed, Phytolacca octandra, naturalized in Australasia, so called from its small black berries, which contain a reddish juice; ink-well a pot for ink fitted into a hole in a desk.
inkless adjective E19.