Word.ws English Dictionary

vermeil

/ˈvɜː.meɪl/US/ˈvɝ.mɪl/

vermeil adjective: bright scarlet, vermilion.

vermeil: bright scarlet, vermilion
Image: G.Garitan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

vermeil (comparative more vermeil, superlative most vermeil)

  1. (archaic, poetic) Bright scarlet, vermilion.
    • And in her cheekes the vermeill red did shew / Like roses in a bed of lillies shed[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • Many and many a verse I hope to write,
      Before the daisies, vermeil rimm’d and white,
      Hide in deep herbage;1818, John Keats, Endymion^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Endymion_(Keats)#Book_I), Book I, lines 49-51
  2. (archaic, poetic) Specifically of faces, lips etc.: red, ruddy, healthy-looking.
    • his carriage; demeanor, and venerable behaviour, in a face so young, vermeill, and heart enflaming[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 36, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
    • a lip as vermeil as her own. (IV, xxx)1820, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer

Noun

vermeil (plural vermeils)

  1. (poetic) Vermilion; bright red.
    • The mortall steele stayed not till it was seene / To gore her side; yet was the wound not deepe, / But lightly rased her soft silken skin, / That drops of purple blood thereout did weepe, / Which did her lilly smock with staines of vermeil steep.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  2. Silver gilt or gilt bronze.
  3. A liquid composition applied to a gilded surface to give luster to the gold.

vermeil meaning in Tamil and Urdu

vermeil in Tamil

வெள்ளி மெருகு

vermeil in Urdu

سیندوری, شنگرفی, شنگرف, شوخ سرخ رنگ

Forms of vermeil

Adjective
comparativemore vermeil
superlativemost vermeil
alternative formvermile
Noun
pluralvermeils

Origin of vermeil

From Middle English vermayle, from Old French vermeil (“vermilion”), from Latin vermiculus (“little worm”), from vermis (“worm”), ultimately in reference to Kermes vermilio, a type of scale insect used to make a crimson dye. Doublet of vermicule.

Words formed from vermeil

Questions about vermeil

What does vermeil mean?
Vermeil means bright scarlet, vermilion.
What is vermeil in Tamil?
Vermeil in Tamil is வெள்ளி மெருகு. See Vermeil meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is vermeil?
Vermeil can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce vermeil?
Vermeil is pronounced /ˈvɜː.meɪl/ (UK).

Words near vermeil in the dictionary

  1. vermal
  2. vermarine
  3. Vermas
  4. Vermeer
  5. Vermeers
  6. vermeil
  7. vermeiled
  8. vermeille
  9. vermeilled
  10. vermeils
  11. vermelone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vermeil (page history and authors); vermeil (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); vermeil (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-vermeil.wav.

Cite this entry: “vermeil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vermeil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.