English
amber
see also: Amber
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈam.bə/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈæm.bɚ/
Noun

amber

  1. (obsolete) Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale. [14th-18th c.]
    • 1526, The Grete Herball:
      Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale.
    • 1579, The Booke of Simples, fol. 56 (contained in Bulleins Bulwarke of Defence against all Sicknesse, Soarnesse, and Woundes):
      As for Amber Grice, or Amber Cane, which ist most sweet myngled with other sweete thynges: some say it commeth from the rocks of the Sea. […] Some say it is gotten by a fish called Azelum, which feedeth upon Amber Grece, and dyeth, which is taken by cunnyng fishers and the belly opened, and this precious Amber found in hym.
    • 1600, John Pory (translator), A Geographical Historie of Africa (original by Leo Africanus), page 344:
      The head of this fish is as hard as stone. The inhabitants of the Ocean sea coast affirme that this fish casteth foorth Amber; but whether the said Amber be the sperma or the excrement thereof, they cannot well determine.
    • 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter, 18 Apr 1717:
      Slaves […] with silver Censors […] perfum'd the air with Amber, Aloes wood, and other Scents.
  2. A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent fossil resin, used for jewellery. One variety, blue amber, appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight. [from 15th c.]
    • 1594 William Shakespeare, wsource The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene III:
      With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery,
      With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, wsource The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act II, Scene II:
      Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit.
    • 1637, Monro, his expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment (called Mac-Keys Regiment), republished in 1999 ISBN 0275962679, page 102:
      To shew this by example, we reade of Sabina Poppcea, to whom nothing was wanting, but shame and honestie, being extremely beloved of Nero, had the colour of her haire yellow, like Amber, which Nero esteemed much of, […] .
  3. A yellow-orange colour.
     
  4. (British) The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection if it is safe to do so.
    • 1974, Traffic Planning and Engineering, page 366:
      While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s.
    • 2000, in the Journal of Traffic Engineering & Control, volume 41, page 201:
      Also flashing ambers are not operational at this type of crossing.
    • 2004 January 14, "AZGuy" (username), "Turn Signal Research shows amber no more effective then red", in rec.autos.driving, Usenet:
      >Problem: Red-red signals are too time consuming when traffic density is higher.
      I don't find them time consuming at all. I find them identical to ambers.
  5. (biology, genetics, biochemistry) The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
    an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor
    • 2007, Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, edition 3, page 333:
      For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature.
    • 2007, Jonathan C. Kuhn, Detection of Salmonella by Bacteriophage Felix 01, in Salmonella: Methods and Protocols, pages 27–28:
      Double ambers revert at 10-8-10-9, and therefore, reversion is negligible. Double-amber mutants are made by crossing single-amber mutants with each other.
Synonyms
  • (intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights) yellow (US)
  • (obsolete: the waxy product of the sperm whale) ambergris
Antonyms
  • (intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights) red, green
Translations Translations
  • French: couleur d'ambre
  • German: Bernsteingelb
  • Italian: ambra
  • Portuguese: âmbar
  • Russian: янта́рный
  • Spanish: ámbar
Translations Adjective

amber

  1. Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of most amber.
Translations Verb

amber (ambers, present participle ambering; past and past participle ambered)

  1. (transitive, rare) To perfume or flavour with ambergris.
    ambered wine, an ambered room
  2. (transitive, rare) To preserve in amber.
    an ambered fly
  3. (transitive, rare, chiefly, poetic or literary) To cause to take on the yellow colour of amber.
    • 1885, America the Beautiful;
      For purple mountains majesty; for amber waves of grain.
    • 2007, Phil Rickman, Fabric of Sin: A Merrily Watkins Mystery;
      Home to the mosaic of coloured-lit windows in the black and white houses, the fake gas lamps ambering the cobbles, sometimes the scent of applewood smoke.
  4. (intransitive, rare, chiefly, poetic or literary) To take on the yellow colour of amber.
Amber
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈæm.bə/
  • (America) enPR: ăm'bər, IPA: /ˈæm.bɚ/
Proper noun
  1. A female given name, popular in the 1980s and the 1990s.
    • 1854 Harper's Magazine, Volume IX, June to November 1854, page 667 ("Lady Amber Mayne")
      The youngest daughter of the Marchioness of Summerdown had one of these quaint, pretty names - Amber! - and what a pretty creature she was!
    • 1944 Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber, Chicago Review Press, 2000, ISBN 1556524048, page 14
      And then she said softly, "Sarah - I think I'll name her Amber - for the colour of her father's eyes - "
    • 2005 Ali Smith, The Accidental, Penguin (2006), ISBN 9780141010397, page 64:
      A bit raddled, maybe thirty, maybe older, tanned like a hitchhiker, dressed like a road protester, one of those older women still determinedly being a girl; all those eighties feministy still-political women were terribly interested in what Eve did. Hippie name. Amber. Ridiculous name.
  2. Surname of uncertain origin.
    • 1901 Frederick Swainson, Acton's Feud: A Public School Story, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007, ISBN 1426481713, page 14
      Amber, the half, generally waltzed round our forwards, and when he secured he passed the ball on to Aspinall.
Translations Proper noun
  1. A female given name
  2. A city in Rajasthan, India, also known as Amer.
Proper noun
  1. A river in Derbyshire, England, which joins the River Derwent at Ambergate.


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