yellower

Adjective

yellow (comparative yellower, superlative yellowest)

1. Of a yellow hue.
   • He had a yellow laptop in his bag.

   Antonyms:

   nonyellow, unyellow

2. (informal) Lacking courage.
   • What you should be is not yellow at all. If you're supposed to sock somebody in the jaw, and you sort of feel like doing it, you should do it.1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, chapter 13, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   cowardly

3. Characterized by sensationalism, lurid content, and doubtful accuracy.
   • The denizens of the gossipy world of the pink press, purple prose and yellow tabloids are shivering over disputed photographs of Princess Caroline of Monaco.2004 October 4, Doreen Carvajal, “Photo edict muffles gossipy press”, in International Herald Tribune, retrieved 29 Jul 2008
4. (derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur) Of a hue attributed to Far East Asians, especially the Chinese.
   • They were all tall and all handsome, though they varied in their degree of darkness of skin, some being as dark as Mahomed, and some as yellow as a Chinese.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
5. (derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur) Far East Asian (relating to Asian people).
   • Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man.1913, Sax Rohmer, The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu
6. (Australia, dated, offensive) Of mixed Aboriginal and Caucasian ancestry.
   • "Eh, Oscar—you hear about your yeller nephew?".1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VI, in Capricornia, page 64

See all 23 meanings of yellow