a color like that of egg yolk, ripe lemons, etc.; the primary color between green and orange in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 570 and 590 nm.
sensational, especially morbidly or offensively so: That yellow rag carried all the gory details.
b.
dishonest in editorial comment and the presentation of news, especially in sacrificing truth for sensationalism: Objective reporting isn't always a match for yellow journalism.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
12.
to make or become yellow: Yellow the sheets with dye. The white stationery had yellowed with age.
Origin: before 900; 1895–1900 for def. 9;Middle English yelou (adj. and noun), Old English geolo, geolu (adj.); cognate with Dutch geel,German gelb,Latin helvus pale-yellow; akin to Old Norse gulr
any of a group of colours that vary in saturation but have the same hue. They lie in the approximate wavelength range 585--575 nanometres. Yellow is the complementary colour of blue and with cyan and magenta forms a set of primary coloursRelated: xanthous
2.
a pigment or dye of or producing these colours
3.
yellow cloth or clothing: dressed in yellow
4.
the yolk of an egg
5.
a yellow ball in snooker, etc
6.
any of a group of pieridine butterflies the males of which have yellow or yellowish wings, esp the clouded yellows (Colias spp.) and the brimstone
—adj
7.
of the colour yellow
8.
yellowish in colour or having parts or marks that are yellowish: yellow jasmine
9.
having a yellowish skin; Mongoloid
10.
informal cowardly or afraid
11.
offensively sensational, as a cheap newspaper (esp in the phrase yellow press)
—vb
12.
to make or become yellow
Related: xanthous
[Old English geolu; related to Old Saxon, Old High German gelo, Old Norse gulr, Latin helvus]
O.E. geolu, geolwe, from P.Gmc. *gelwaz (cf. O.S., O.H.G. gelo, M.Du. ghele, Du. geel, M.H.G. gel, Ger. gelb, O.N. gulr, Swed. gul "yellow"), from PIE *ghel-/*ghol- "yellow, green" (see Chloe). The verb meaning "to become yellow" is O.E. geoluwian. Adj. meaning "light-skinned"
(of blacks) first recorded 1808. Applied to Asiatics since 1787, though the first recorded reference is to Turkish words for inhabitants of India. Yellow peril translates Ger. die gelbe gefahr. Sense of "cowardly" is 1856, of unknown origin; the color was traditionally associated rather with treachery. Yellow-bellied "cowardly" is from 1924, probably a rhyming reduplication of yellow; earlier yellow-belly was a sailor's name for a half-caste (1867) and a Texas term for Mexican soldiers (1842, based on the color of their uniforms). Yellow dog "mongrel" is attested from c.1770; slang sense of "contemptible person" first recorded 1881.
mod. cowardly. A: Mooshoo says you're yellow. B: Wanna make something of it? :
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source