Log in or Sign up

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A moderate to strong brown.
  2. n. A coarse reddish-brown to brown homespun cloth.
  3. n. A winter apple with a rough reddish-brown skin.
  4. n. A russet Burbank.
  5. adj. Moderate to strong brown.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Of a reddish-brown color: applied also to some light browns not reddish. When said of leather, it includes nearly every variety browner than red Russia; but it does not include gray, nor pure buff. When applied to armor, a coppery red is generally meant—a kind of finish common in the sixteenth century.
  2. Made of russet; hence, coarse; homespun; rustic: a use derived from the general color of homespun cloth.
  3. Made of russet leather.
  4. n. A reddish-brown color: a broad and vague term, formerly applied to various shades of gray and brown or ash-color, sometimes used restrictively, but in no well-settled sense.
  5. n. Coarse cloth, country-made and often homespun, used for the garments of peasantry and even of country people of some means: a term originally derived from the reddish-brown color of much cloth of this quality, and retained when the color was different, as gray or ash-colored.
  6. n. plural Clothes of russet; especially, the garb of a shepherd.
  7. n. In leather manufacturing, leather finished, but not polished or colored, except as colored by the tanning liquor; russet leather.
  8. n. A kind of winter apple having a brownish color, rough skin, and characteristic flavor. Though no doubt named from its color, this is rather buff than russet, with a greenish bronze-like luster, very striking in some varieties.
  9. To give a russet hue to; change into russet.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A coarse, reddish-brown, homespun fabric.
  2. n. Country dress; homespun cloth.
  3. n. A reddish-brown color.
  4. n. Variety of apple of russet-colored, rough skin.
  5. n. Variety of potato with dark gray-brown, rough skin.
  6. adj. Having a reddish-brown color.
  7. adj. Gray or ash-colored (antiquated usage).
  8. adj. Rustic, homespun, coarse, plain.
  9. adj. "Condition of leather when it is finished, excepting the operations of coloring and polishing the surface." (From 1880s British/American dictionary.)

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Of a reddish brown color, or (by some called) a red gray; of the color composed of blue, red, and yellow in equal strength, but unequal proportions, namely, two parts of red to one each of blue and yellow; also, of a yellowish brown color.
  2. adj. Coarse; homespun; rustic.
  3. n. A russet color; a pigment of a russet color.
  4. n. Cloth or clothing of a russet color.
  5. n. A country dress; -- so called because often of a russet color.
  6. n. An apple, or a pear, of a russet color.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. of brown with a reddish tinge
  2. n. a reddish brown homespun fabric

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old French rousset, from rous, red, from Latin russus; see reudh- in Indo-European roots.

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘russet’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • agustinolvera Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer pg. 222
    "He grinned widely, his teeth bright against his russet skin." Dec 2, 2010

‘russet’ has been looked up 1884 times, loved by 2 people, added to 61 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 6.