pinks
- 1Plural of pink.
The decorator chose two pale pinks for the nursery walls.
Bright pinks dominated the spring fashion collection this year.
Note
Color nouns turn plural when they mean shades rather than the color itself: two pale pinks, a range of bright pinks. The color takes its name from the flowers, so this plural loops back to the garden flowers, which share the same spelling. The same form also names the fox-hunter's scarlet coats, from hunting pink, so context alone tells a paint chart from a flower bed or a hunt.
- 2Flowering plants of the genus Dianthus, in the family Caryophyllaceae, some of which are known as carnations.
Cottage gardeners have prized pinks for their fragrance and fringed petals for centuries.
A row of pinks edged the path, their blooms ranging from white to deep rose.
Similardianthus, carnations
- 3In the United Kingdom, the scarlet coats that fox hunters traditionally wear.
At the meet, the master of the hunt stood out in his pinks.
A line of riders in their pinks trotted across the frosty field.
Similarscarlet
Note
A red that goes by the name pink: the hunting field calls its scarlet coats pinks. The word works like breeches or tails. It stays plural even for one rider's single jacket, so a master of the hunt appears in his pinks, never in a pink. Outside hunting talk the coat is simply a scarlet jacket.
pinks is a form of pink
pink, noun: A color between red and white, ranging from pale red to bright reddish purple. Full entry
- Forms
- pinkpinks plural
- Spelling
- pink → pinks: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /s/.
Practice
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