Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A southwest Asian perennial plant (Rubia tinctorum) having small yellow flowers, whorled leaves, and a red root.
- n. The root of this plant, formerly an important source of the dye alizarin.
- n. A red dye obtained from the roots of this plant.
- n. A medium to strong red or reddish orange.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A plant of the genus Rubia, natural order Rubiaceæ, yielding a valuable dyestuff of the same name. The ordinary dyers' madder is R. tinctorum, native of the Mediterranean region, a climbing, herbaceous, or at the base somewhat shrubby plant, with whorls of dark-green leaves and panicles of small yellowish 4—5-merous flowers, and with long succulent perennial roots. It was formerly esteemed as an emmenagogue and diuretic. R. cordifolia, of India, eastern Asia, and parts of Africa, affords garancin, and is used for the same purposes as European madder; it forms the madder of India, the Bengal madder or munjeet. R. peregrina is the proper wild madder of England, found throughout western and southern Europe.
- n. A dyestuff and pigment obtained from the roots of Rubia tinctorum and other plants of the same family. It yields colors of the greatest permanence, and is employed in dyeing linen and cotton red. Two kinds are fixed upon cotton: one is called
madder-red , and the other, which possesses a much higher degree of luster and fixity, is calledAdrianople red , because it is largely exported from that city, or Turkey red, from the fact that for a long time it was mainly obtained from the Levant; it is also produced near Leghorn and Trieste. In the trade this madder bears the name of alizari or lizari. The roots are broken up by means of wooden stampers, which reduce the bark and splint-bark to powder, leaving the hard inner part unbroken; but the whole root is sometimes pulverized. The coloring principle of madder is termed alizarin. Madder contains also a red pigment, purpurin or rubiacin, which is extracted in the form of orange-colored prismatic crystals, and yields a good dye, either alone or in combination with alizarin. Through the peculiar chemical affinity of phosphate of lime for its coloring matter, madder is noted for its remarkable physiological effect of turning red the bones of animals to which it is fed, as well as the claws and beaks of birds. - n. Oldenlandia umbellata.
- n. Some species of the genus Hedyotis.
- n. The white bedstraw, Galium Mollugo.
- To dye with madder.
- n. A large wooden drinking-vessel.
- n. Same as purple-black.
Wiktionary
- adj. comparative form of mad: more mad
- n. alternative spelling of mether.(obsolete)
- n. A herbaceous plant, Rubia tinctorum, native to Asia, cultivated for a red-purple dye obtained from the root.
- n. The root of the plant, used as a medicine or a dye.
- n. A dye made from the plant.
- n. A deep reddish purple colour, like that of the dye.
- adj. Of a deep reddish purple colour, like that of the dye.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Rubia (Rubia tinctorum). The root is much used in dyeing red, and formerly was used in medicine. It is cultivated in France and Holland. See rubiaceous.
WordNet 3.0
- v. color a moderate to strong red
- n. Eurasian herb having small yellow flowers and red roots formerly an important source of the dye alizarin
Etymologies
- Old English mæddre, mædre, from Germanic, perhaps from an Indo-European base meaning ‘blue’. Cognate with Swedish madra. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English mædere. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“What gets me even madder is that mcdonnell gave deeds so much ammo what with his grad school thesis and everything but deeds didn’t take full advantage of that … He also didn’t really “sell” himself here in nova like he should have ..”
Think Progress » Virginians Buck Far-Right Policies Of McDonnell And Cuccinelli
“He wanted to be known as madder than Michael, as even more frightening.”
“The name, however, still lives, but is applied to rose madder, which is indeed indifferently called _Rose Madder_, _Pink”
Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
“The latter is preferred in England, from the long habit of using Dutch madder, which is of this color, but in”
“In foreign countries it is customary to make several qualities of the madder, which is done by sorting the roots; but as only one quality is required for the western market, Mr. Swift makes but one, and that is found superior to most of the imported, and finds a ready sale.”
“= -- This is, perhaps, the most important operation in the whole process of bleaching, especially if the cloths are going to be printed in the so-called madder style with alizarine colours, or otherwise stains are liable to occur in the final stage, and it is then sometimes difficult to put the blame for these upon the right shoulders.”
The Dyeing of Cotton Fabrics A Practical Handbook for the Dyer and Student
“So far the routine has been described of the so-called madder bleach, the most perfect kind of bleach applied to cotton cloths.”
The Dyeing of Cotton Fabrics A Practical Handbook for the Dyer and Student
“Madder could be purchased, for it was raised in the Southern colonies, but the madder was a brown red.”
“I learn that the simmering stuff is a dyer's root, known as madder, which will be converted into a purer and more concentrated product.”
The Life of the fly; with which are interspersed some chapters of autobiography
“Petition of Captain Macphedris of London, merchant, on behalf of himself and several merchants, clothiers, hatters, dyers, and other traders, praying a charter of incorporation empowering them to raise a sufficient sum of money to purchase lands for planting and rearing a wood called madder, for the use of dyers.”
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘madder’.
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Reds
crimson, blood, scarlet, rott, rojo, brick, fire engine, vermilion, carmine, burgundy, amaranth, alizarin and 115 more...
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
mabble, mabsoot, macadamize, macarism, macarize, macaronic, macerate, macerator, machair, machairodont, machicolation, machinule and 898 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Uncommon Colours
azure, myrtle, periwinkle, viridian, jade, emerald, lime, chartreuse, asparagus, celadon, harlequin, olive and 147 more...
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Archaic Colours
Words for colours that have fallen out of use.
aeneous, croceate, cretaceous, cramoisy, corbeau, coquelicot, coccineous, claret, cinerious, chrysochlorous, chlorochrous, cesious and 128 more...
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select words
luminous, radiant, malicious, zeal, ojalá, voluptuary, rubbish, purlicue, consarnit, upstart, precis, robinsonade and 66 more...
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In The Colorhouse
A colorhouse - a manufactory of colors for tints, dyes, pigments, paints, glazes, &c. Terms associated with the science and history of colormaking.
All sorts of things went into color...colorhouse, Turkey red, dyebath, woad, ocher, lead white, mordant, Naples yellow, zaffer, kiln, vat, pot and 298 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (M)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
mace, macintosh, madras, magenta, magic 8 ball, magma, mahogany, maiden, mail, mainsail, maize, malachite and 169 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Dyes & Pigments
gamboge, anil, catechu, cinnabar, vermilion, ponceau, cochineal, kermes, lac, eosin, azure, indigo and 134 more...
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Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
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A few of my favorite definitions from...
I'm especially fond of ones written by Charles Sanders Peirce.
theodolite, illusion, buckie, frank, abstract-concrete, semidiagrammatic, object-object, vortex-filament, dod, parrock, cobler, weather-box and 354 more...
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A Serving of Random Palavery
This is an eclectic and somewhat random list of words that catch and hold my attention. They may be archaic or disused, dialectal, jargon words from my fields of academic speciality (linguistics, ...
scraffle, infelicitous, misprize, defrock, caitiff, gimcrack, innerve, abjure, cyberchondriac, indurate, hexagynous, pistils and 146 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for madder.

ruzuzu "Through the peculiar chemical affinity of phosphate of lime for its coloring matter, madder is noted for its remarkable physiological effect of turning red the bones of animals to which it is fed, as well as the claws and beaks of birds."
--from the Century Dictionary definition. Sep 23, 2010
hernesheir Madder, the color "Turkey" red, or the color of French military cloth. Jan 3, 2009
reesetee That's what they say. But not in my world. I *eat* chocolate; I *drink* coffee. :-) Not that I don't like hot cocoa; it's just not a year-round drink for me. Jul 12, 2007
trivet No, that's chocolate (Theobroma cacao)... Jul 12, 2007
reesetee Coffee--drink of the gods. Jul 12, 2007
slumry coffea is in the madder family. I love coffee! Jul 12, 2007
fbharjo madder - the color not the emotion Apr 6, 2007