Library / English Dictionary

INK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dark protective fluid ejected into the water by cuttlefish and other cephalopods

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("ink" is a kind of...):

bodily fluid; body fluid; humor; humour; liquid body substance (the liquid parts of the body)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A liquid used for printing or writing or drawing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("ink" is a kind of...):

liquid (a substance that is liquid at room temperature and pressure)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ink"):

indelible ink (ink that cannot be erased or washed away)

drawing ink; India ink (a black liquid ink used for printing or writing or drawing)

magnetic ink (an ink that contains particles of a magnetic substance whose presence can be detected by magnetic sensors)

printer's ink; printing ink (a semisolid quick drying ink made especially for use in printing)

writing ink (any permanent or washable ink used with pens)

Derivation:

ink (fill with ink)

inky (of the color of black ink)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fill with ink

Example:

ink a pen

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "ink" is one way to...):

fill; fill up; make full (make full, also in a metaphorical sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ink"):

red-ink (mark with red ink)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

ink (a liquid used for printing or writing or drawing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Mark, coat, cover, or stain with ink

Example:

he inked his finger

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "ink" is one way to...):

mark (make or leave a mark on)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Append one's signature to

Example:

They inked the contract

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "ink" is one way to...):

sign (be engaged by a written agreement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

He brought with him pen, ink, and paper, and three or four books, giving me to understand by signs, that he was sent to teach me the language.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Amy's dainty pen-and-ink work entirely eclipsed May's painted vases—that was one thorn.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The researchers altered the chemical composition of the perovskite layers by adding potassium iodide to perovskite inks, which then self-assemble into thin films.

(Potassium gives perovskite-based solar cells an efficiency boost, University of Cambridge)

Address printed in rather straggling characters: ‘Miss S. Cushing, Cross Street, Croydon.’ Done with a broad-pointed pen, probably a J, and with very inferior ink.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They can use the initially-invisible ink to draw faces—or any other design—on paper and other surfaces.

(New wristband provides personalised and real-time tracking of UV exposure, University of Granada)

Other potential uses of vaterite include improving the cements used in orthopaedic surgery and as an industrial application improving the quality of papers for inkjet printing by reducing the lateral spread of ink.

(Rare mineral discovered in plants for first time, University of Cambridge)

He got up, held it close to my eyes: and I read, traced in Indian ink, in my own handwriting, the words "JANE EYRE"—the work doubtless of some moment of abstraction.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A microscopy staining method that utilizes India Ink, a water soluble carbon-based black ink, to determine the presence of microorganisms that are surrounded by a gelatinous capsule.

(India Ink Staining Method, NCI Thesaurus)

Cobalt sulfate is used in the electrochemical industries, as a drier in paints and inks, as a coloring agent, in storage batteries and as a supplement for Vitamin B12 deficiency.

(Cobaltous Sulfate, NCI Thesaurus)

There were several additions of a later date, but above all, three crosses of red ink—two on the north part of the island, one in the southwest—and beside this last, in the same red ink, and in a small, neat hand, very different from the captain's tottery characters, these words: Bulk of treasure here.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)