COCHINEAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Cochineal

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

Cochineal

noun

A red dyestuff consisting of dried bodies of female cochineal insects.

Mexican red scale insect that feeds on cacti; the source of a red dye. Synonyms: cochineal insect, Dactylopius coccus.

See images of 'Cochineal'

Etymology of 'Cochineal'

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Cochineal" Quotes from Famous Books

... find out whether the suspicious-looking thing is really blood, or whether it is merely red paint, or logwood, or cochineal, or madder, or iron-mould. There are three ways of doing this, and he nearly ...

— The Harmsworth Magazine, v. 1, 1898-1899, No. 2 • Various

... soles of her feet. It was customary for Hindu ladies to stain the soles of their feet of a red colour with the dye made from lac—a minute insect bearing some resemblance to the cochineal—which punctures the bark of the Indian fig-tree, and surrounds itself with the milky resinous juice of that tree. This custom is a alluded to in one ...

— Sakoontala or The Lost Ring - An Indian Drama • Kalidasa

Words linked to "Cochineal" : dyestuff, genus Dactylopius, Dactylopius, scale insect, dye