dye

1 of 2

noun

1
: color from dyeing
2
: a soluble or insoluble coloring matter

dye

2 of 2

verb

dyed; dyeing

transitive verb

1
: to impart a new and often permanent color to especially by impregnating with a dye
2
: to impart (a color) by dyeing

intransitive verb

: to take up or impart color in dyeing
dyeability noun
dyeable adjective
dyer noun

Examples of dye in a Sentence

Noun soaked the fabric in blue dye Verb She had been dyeing her hair for years. The fabric is bleached, dyed, and then washed.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
And the earliest Easter eggs were often painted with substances like vegetable dye and charcoal. Alison Fox, Parents, 22 Mar. 2024 The Food and Drug Administration approves the use of dyes in foods and requires evidence that a color additive is safe before being added to products. Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 14 Mar. 2024 Cotton threads are woven on a large loom at a mill somewhere in Asia, then shipped to a dye house, then shipped (usually a great distance) to a garment factory somewhere else in Asia. Alden Wicker, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2024 The dyes aren’t found in, say, a ham and cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwich. John Woolfolk, The Mercury News, 12 Mar. 2024 Blue 1 is found in Froot Loops, and other artificial dyes can be found in Jolly Ranchers, M&Ms, Sour Patch Kids and Mountain Dew. Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 12 Mar. 2024 The application took 30 minutes and then Novotny let the dye sit on Fox’s hair for 20 minutes before washing it out. Michelle Lee, Peoplemag, 1 Apr. 2024 Brow tinting, or the process of applying semi-permanent dye to your brow hair, is a low-maintenance means of enhancing your natural look. Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 28 Mar. 2024 As of Saturday, Russia had filed at least 15 criminal cases after people poured dye in ballot boxes, started fires or lobbed Molotov cocktails at polling stations. Christian Edwards, CNN, 18 Mar. 2024
Verb
To fit that mold, Silverman dyed her hair blonde, and started to pair restriction with intense exercise to lose weight. Audrey Richardson and Aurora Sousanis, USA TODAY, 6 Apr. 2024 Fox's new hair is not only much shorter—her just-past-the-shoulder-length shag chopped into a sleek, blunt bob—but dyed an ultra-icy shade of bright electric blue too. Danielle Sinay, Glamour, 2 Apr. 2024 Other photos in the post showed her older daughter Lily dyeing eggs and her younger daughter Teddy posing with their dog. Angela Andaloro, Peoplemag, 1 Apr. 2024 More than half of these eggs (40,000, to be precise) come from Braswell Family Farms in North Carolina, who boiled and dyed thousands of eggs in orange, green, purple, pink, and blue to add some Easter color to the White House. Abigail Wilt, Southern Living, 1 Apr. 2024 For those celebrating the festivity, there are plenty of traditions to partake in, including dyeing Easter eggs. Marina Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 22 Mar. 2024 Then, a few seasons in, Preston — who was blond and wore a red wig on camera — decided to dye her hair red. Emily Yahr, Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2024 While Easter egg hunts, dyeing eggs and photos with the Easter Bunny are a fun time with the kids, what about the day of? Marina Johnson, The Indianapolis Star, 30 Mar. 2024 Learn more › Biting the heads off chocolate bunnies is fun, but the real thrill of Easter is dyeing eggs. Annie Colbert, Popular Science, 27 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dye.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English dehe, from Old English dēah, dēag

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of dye was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near dye

Cite this Entry

“Dye.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dye. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

dye

1 of 2 noun
1
: color produced by dyeing
2
: a material used for dyeing or staining

dye

2 of 2 verb
dyed; dyeing
: to stain or color usually permanently
dyer noun

Medical Definition

dye

1 of 2 noun
1
: color from dyeing
2
: a soluble or insoluble coloring matter

dye

2 of 2 verb
dyed; dyeing

transitive verb

1
: to impart a new and often permanent color to especially by impregnating with a dye
2
: to impart (a color) by dyeing
dyeing blue on yellow

intransitive verb

: to take up or impart color in dyeing

More from Merriam-Webster on dye

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