yellow

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between orange and green, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 570 to 590 nanometers; any of a group of colors of a hue resembling that of ripe lemons and varying in lightness and saturation; one of the subtractive primaries; one of the psychological primary hues.
2. n. A pigment or dye having this hue.
3. n. Something that has this hue.
4. n. Chiefly Southern U.S. The yolk of an egg.
5. n. Western U.S. Gold. Used formerly by prospectors.
6. n. Any of various plant diseases usually caused by fungi of the genus Fusarium or viruses of the genus Chlorogenus and characterized by yellow or yellowish discoloration.
7. adj. Of the color yellow.
8. adj. Having a yellow-brown skin color.
9. adj. Offensive Of or being a person of Asian origin.
10. adj. Slang Cowardly.
11. v. To make or become yellow: documents that had been yellowed by age; clouds that yellow in the evening light.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. As originally applied to journalism, indecently sensational; in general, sensational; morbid; decadent. See yellow journal.
2. n. An acid coal-tar color of the monoazo type prepared by combining diazotized meta-sulphanilic acid with diphenyl amine. It dyes wool orange-yellow in an acid bath.
3. n. Same as yellow, 1 .
4. n. Same as diphenylamine-orange (which see, under orange).
5. Of a color resembling that of gold, butter, etc. See II. Yellow is sometimes used in the sense of ‘jaundiced,’ ‘jealous,’ etc., the color being regarded as a token or symbol of jealousy, envy, melancholy, etc.: a usage no doubt connected with the figurative notions attaching to jaundice, the skin having a yellow hue in that disease.
6. See balsam.
7. A mulatto or a dark quadroon: used (as also yellow girl) both by whites and by negroes.
8. The yellow star-thistle, Centaurea solstitialis.
9. Seeflag and Iris.
10. See yellow-gum.
11. See Micropterus.
12. In entomology, Peck's skipper, Polites peckius, a small hesperian butterfly of America, of a brownish color with a large yellow blotch on each hind wing.
13. n. The color of gold, butter, the neutral chromates of lead, potassa, etc., and of light of wave-length about 0.581 micron. It has some remarkable properties, which are due to the fact that by far the greater part of the visible spectrum consists of two regions, in either of which any three colors being taken a suitable mixture of the extreme ones will match the middle one, and that the yellow is about the middle of one of these regions which contains four fifths of all the visible light of the solar spectrum. This region is bounded by the scarlet and the emerald-green; the other by the emerald-green and the violet-blue. These three colors are thus the only ones which cannot be matched by mixtures of others. They are also more chromatic or high-colored than those which fall between them in the spectrum; for which reasons physicists regard these three colors as the elementary ones. (See color.) A remarkable property of yellow is that an increase of light merely intensifles the sensation with a slight heightening of the color, without changing the hue; while blue, on the other hand, is rendered pale by increased illumination, and all other colors are rendered yellowish. The name yellow is restricted to highly chromatic and luminous colors. When reduced in chroma, it becomes buff; when reduced in luminosity, a cool brown. Mixed with red, yellow goes over into orange; mixed with green, into yellow-green. Lemon-yellow and canary-yellow may be taken as pure yellows, the latter being a little greener. Sulphur-yellow is a little greenish; primrose is a little greenish and pale; gamboge is a very slightly orange yellow. By chrome-yellow is usually meant a little more orange and most intensely chromatic color. Indian, cadmium, and saffron yellows are orange-yellows; Naples yellow and maize-yellow are pale orange-yellows. Ocher-yellow, clay-yellow, and wax-yellow are of somewhat diminished chroma, the first a little orange, and the last a little green. It is impossible to describe the yellows more precisely, as the slightest causes—for example, a little thicker layer of paint, or illumination from another part of the sky—change their hues decidedly.
14. n. The yolk of an egg; the vitellus: opposed to the white, or the surrounding albumen.
15. n. plural Jaundice, especially jaundice in cattle (see jaundice); hence, figuratively, jealousy.
16. n. plural Dyer's-weed.
17. n. Same as peach-yellows.
18. n. One of certain geometrid moths: an English collectors' name: as, the speckled yellow.
19. n. Any one of the group of small yellow butterflies; a sulphur. See sulphur, n., 3.
20. To render yellow.
21. To become yellow; grow yellow.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Having yellow as its colour.
2. adj. Lacking courage.
3. adj. Characterized by sensationalism, lurid content, and doubtful accuracy.
4. adj. Chinese (relating to Chinese people).
5. n. The colour of gold or butter; the colour obtained by mixing green and red light, or by subtracting blue from white light.
6. n. One of the colour balls used in snooker with a value of 2 points.
7. n. yellow card
8. v. To become yellow or more yellow.
9. v. To cause to become yellow or more yellow.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Being of a bright saffronlike color; of the color of gold or brass; having the hue of that part of the rainbow, or of the solar spectrum, which is between the orange and the green.
2. adj. Cowardly; hence, dishonorable; mean; contemptible.
3. adj. Sensational; -- said of some newspapers, their makers, etc.
4. n. A bright golden color, reflecting more light than any other except white; the color of that part of the spectrum which is between the orange and green.
5. n. A yellow pigment.
6. v. To make yellow; to cause to have a yellow tinge or color; to dye yellow.
7. v. To become yellow or yellower.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. typical of tabloids
2. adj. affected by jaundice which causes yellowing of skin etc
3. adj. of the color intermediate between green and orange in the color spectrum; of something resembling the color of an egg yolk
4. adj. changed to a yellowish color by age
5. adj. cowardly or treacherous
6. v. turn yellow
7. adj. easily frightened
8. n. yellow color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of sunflowers or ripe lemons