Vermeil, vermil a. and sb.

Forms: α. 5 vermaile, -mayle, -meyle, 6 vermayll, 7 -meyl; 6 vermeill, 8–9 -meille, 6– vermeil. β. 6 vermell, 7 vermel; 6–7 vermile, 7 -myle; 8–9 vermil. [a. AF. and OF. vermail, vermeil adj. and sb. (11th c., mod.F. vermeil, = Prov. vermelh, vermel):—acc. sing. of L. vermiculus, dim. of vermis worm: see VERMICLE, and cf. VERMILION sb. and VERMILY.]

  A.  adj. Of a bright scarlet or red color; vermilion. Chiefly poet.

  α.  c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 3645. Ful fayre it [sc. the rose] spradde the god of blesse For suche another as I gesse Aforne ne was ne more vermayle.

c. 1420.  Lydg., Ballad at Reverence Our Lady, 45 (Skeat). Benigne braunchelet of the pyne-tree, Vyneyerd vermayle.

1509.  Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 74. Take not colde water in stede of vermayll wine.

1549.  Compl. Scot., vi. 37. The pretty fische … vitht there rede vermeil fynnis.

1596.  Spenser, Prothal., ii. With store of vermeil Roses, To decke their Bridegromes posies.

1802.  Sporting Mag., XII. 359. Nature’s vermeil robe and lilied vest.

1807.  Wordsw., White Doe, II. 12. This Maid, who wrought … In vermeil colours and in gold An unblest work.

1812.  S. Rogers, Columbus, Poems (1839), 42. Tinging with vermeil light the billows blue.

1898.  Ménie Muriel Dowie, Crook of Bough, xvi. 165. The vermeil flood mounted in her cheeks, but she met his glance fully.

  β.  1592.  Wyrley, Armorie, Ld. Chandos, i. A vermile crosse the Cyprian king still wore.

1637.  Milton, Lycidas (MS. draft). That sad Floure that strove To write his own Woes on the vermel Graine.

1692.  J. Salter, Triumphs Jesus, 17. A Face with Vermile Paint still over-laid.

1791.  E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. I. 4. In noon’s bright blaze thy vermil vest unfold.

1800.  Moore, Aracreon, lvi. The ripe and vermil wine, Sweet infant of the pregnant vine.

  b.  Freq. of the countenance, lips, etc.

c. 1614.  Sir W. Mure, Dido & Æneas, I. 626. The dimples of a vermile cheek.

1754.  Gray, Pleasure fr. Vicissitude, 3. With vermeil cheek and whisper soft She [sc. the morn] woo’s the tardy spring.

1780.  S. J. Pratt, Emma Corbett (ed. 4), II. 176. The invisible sigh steals through its vermeil passages.

1820.  C. R. Maturin, Melmoth (1892), III. xxx. 198. A lip as vermeil as her own.

1864.  Musgrave, Ten Days in Fr. Parsonage, I. i. 29. The vermeil cheeks … faded away into creamy hues.

  transf.  1759.  Mallet, Fragment, Wks. I. 50. The vivid pulse, the vermil grace,… Youth, beauty, pleasure, all are thine!

1800.  Moore, Anacreon, xiv., note 3. So many vermil, honeyed kisses, Envy can never count our blisses.

  c.  With names of colors; esp. vermeil red.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. iii. 22. In her cheekes the vermeill red did shew.

1791.  Huddesford, Salmag., 121. Thy vermeil red and living green In mimic folds thou shalt display.

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 364. Like a blossom vermeil-white, That lightly breaks a faded flower-sheath.

1906.  C. M. Doughty, Dawn in Britain, I. 68.

  B.  sb. 1. Vermilion hue or color.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 45. The snowy substaunce [ante frothy billowes] sprent With vermell, like the boyes bloud therein shed.

1633.  P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., X. xli. So when cleare ivorie vermeil fitly blots, By stains it fairer grows.

1728.  Fielding, Love in Sev. Masques, I. v. It has exagitated my complexion to that exorbitancy of vermeille.

c. 1750.  Shenstone, Ruined Abbey, 180. The vivid vermeil fled his fady cheek.

1848.  Lytton, Harold, III. iv. The orb was sinking red and lurid, amidst long cloud-wracks of vermeil and purple.

1892.  ‘M. Field,’ Sight & Song, 1. A cloak Of vermeil and of blue.

  † b.  transf. Blood. Obs. rare.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. x. 24. How oft that day did sad Brunchildis see The greene shield dyde in dolorous vermell?

1594.  Greene, Selimus, 670. Ile follow Mars,… And die my shield in dolorous vermeil.

1812.  Cary, Dante, Parad., XVI. 151. With these [I] saw her so glorious and so just, that ne’er The lily from the lance had hung reverse, Or through division been with vermeil dyed.

  † 2.  = VERMILION sb. 1 a. Obs. rare^–1.

1610.  G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., II. xxxii. A painted face, belied with vermeyl store.

  3.  (See quots.)

1796.  Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 250. Oriental Ruby. Its colour is carmine red,… sometimes red and white, or red and blue, and thence called sapphire ruby, or orange red, by some called vermeille or rubicelle.

1884.  Imp. Dict., Vermeil, a jeweller’s name for a crimson-red garnet inclining slightly to orange.

  4.  Gilding. (See quot.) Also attrib.

  Directly from mod.F. vermeil; the quotation is part of a description of the French method of gilding.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 613. The vermeil coat. Vermeil is a liquid which gives lustre and fire to the gold, and makes it resemble or moulu. [Hence in later Dicts.]

  b.  Silver-gilt; gilt bronze.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Vermeil (French), silver gilt, or gilt bronze. [Hence in later Dicts.]

1889.  Harper’s Mag., Aug., 331/2. The iconostase or screen is a high wall of burnished vermeil.

1911.  19th Cent., May, 841. Golden pheasants sat … on platters of embossed vermeille.

  C.  Comb. (chiefly parasynthetic), as vermeil-cheeked, -dyed, -rimmed, -tinctured, -tinted, -veined.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 752. What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that?

1777.  Potter, Æschylus, Furies, 451. Let th’ Athenian train,… now advance, Array’d in richest vesture darting round Its vermeil-tinctur’d radiance.

1810.  Shelley, Hope, iv. Orig. Poetry (1898), 25. The vermiel [sic] tinted flowers.

1818.  Keats, Endymion, I. 50. Before the daisies, vermeil rimm’d and white, Hide in deep herbage. Ibid. (1820), St. Agnes, xxxviii. Thy beauty’s shield, heart-shap’d and vermeil dyed.

1821.  L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 67 (1822), II. 117. The bearded and the vermeil-checked.

1905.  Holman-Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism, i. 4. Cheeks vermeil-veined by the pencilling of nature.