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/ɪŋk/ Listen

noun

Ink n. (Mach.) The step, or socket, in which the lower end of a millstone spindle runs.

Ink n.

1.

A fluid, or a viscous material or preparation of various kinds (commonly black or colored), used in writing or printing. "Make there a prick with ink." "Deformed monsters, foul and black as ink."

2.

A pigment. See India ink, under India. Note: Ordinarily, black ink is made from nutgalls and a solution of some salt of iron, and consists essentially of a tannate or gallate of iron; sometimes indigo sulphate, or other coloring matter, is added. Other black inks contain potassium chromate, and extract of logwood, salts of vanadium, etc. Blue ink is usually a solution of Prussian blue. Red ink was formerly made from carmine (cochineal), Brazil wood, etc., but potassium eosin is now used. Also red, blue, violet, and yellow inks are largely made from aniline dyes. Indelible ink is usually a weak solution of silver nitrate, but carbon in the form of lampblack or India ink, salts of molybdenum, vanadium, etc., are also used. Sympathetic inks may be made of milk, salts of cobalt, etc. See Sympathetic ink (below).

Copying ink, a peculiar ink used for writings of which copies by impression are to be taken.

Ink bag (Zool.), an ink sac.

Ink berry. (Bot.)

(a)

A shrub of the Holly family (Ilex glabra), found in sandy grounds along the coast from New England to Florida, and producing a small black berry.

(b)

The West Indian indigo berry. See Indigo.

Ink plant (Bot.), a New Zealand shrub (Coriaria thymifolia), the berries of which yield a juice which forms an ink.

Ink powder, a powder from which ink is made by solution.

Ink sac (Zool.), an organ, found in most cephalopods, containing an inky fluid which can be ejected from a duct opening at the base of the siphon. The fluid serves to cloud the water, and enable these animals to escape from their enemies.

Printer's ink, or Printing ink. See under Printing.

Sympathetic ink, a writing fluid of such a nature that what is written remains invisible till the action of a reagent on the characters makes it visible.

verb

Ink v. t. (past & past part. inked; pres. part. inking) To put ink upon; to supply with ink; to blacken, color, or daub with ink.

See images of 'Ink'

Etymology of 'Ink'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ink" Quotes from Famous Books

... of an old dresser, in company with chipped sauce- boats, pewter jugs, cheese-graters, and paid bills, rested a worn and ragged Bible, on whose front page was the record, in faded ink, of a baptism dated ninety-four years ago. "Martha Crale" was the name written on that yellow page. The yellow, wrinkled old dame who hobbled and muttered about the kitchen, looking like a dead autumn leaf which the winter winds still pushed hither and thither, had once been Martha Crale; ...

— Beasts and Super-Beasts • Saki

... all this?" he continued, with one hand seizing the vial of colorless liquid and with the other the photograph of the college assessor's widow. "So this is hydrochloric acid for erasing ink? Very good! And this is a photo! So we are fabricating passports? Very fine! ...

— The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations • Julian Hawthorne

... pass a Federal budget. We cannot win that race held back by horse-and-buggy programs that waste tax dollars and squander human potential. We cannot win that race if we're swamped in a sea of red ink. Now, Mr. Speaker, you know, I know, and the American people know the Federal budget system is broken. It doesn't work. Before we leave this city, let's you and I work together to fix it, and then we can finally give the American people a ...

— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... at the edge of the sky the cloud-canopy had a blood-red rim. Below, everything was dark and indistinct, dim hills in the distance, a vague mass of buildings running up into pinnacles, trees like spilt ink, and below the window a tracery of black bushes and pale grey paths. It was so unfamiliar that for the moment I thought myself still dreaming. I felt the toilet-table; it appeared to be made of some polished wood, and was rather elaborately furnished—there ...

— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

... and of establishing his authority so as to be able to retain his subjects in the obedience they owe him." He was fully aware of the price he must pay for such a protection. Lewis was bent on the ruin of Holland and the annexation of Flanders. With the ink of the Triple Alliance hardly dry Charles promised help in both these designs. The Netherlands indeed could not be saved if Holland fell, and the fall of Holland was as needful for the success of the plans of Charles as of Lewis. It was impossible ...

— History of the English People, Volume VI (of 8) - Puritan England, 1642-1660; The Revolution, 1660-1683 • John Richard Green

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