ecru

noun \ ˈe-(ˌ)krü , ˈā-(ˌ)krü \

|Updated on: 4 Jul 2018

Definition of ecru

: a pale or light grayish yellow or brown : beige 2

… the latest fashion dictate: Beige. From Calvin Klein to the Gap, fashion purveyors have flooded malls with ecru, khaki and cream …
—Teri Agins

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ecru

adjective

- wearing an ecru blouse
- Ah, silk poplin. Most luxurious resort/spring/summer thing you could wear, especially when it's this new creamy ecru color.
- —Town & Country

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Recent Examples of ecru from the Web

Stacks of firewood echo the stairs’ rigid lines, and the hall is bare except for a collection of straw hats that Alegre’s girlfriend, Cristina Carulla, hung on an ecru plaster wall.

— lauren collins, New York Times, "Inside an Artfully Imperfect Home in the Catalonian Countryside," 11 May 2018
The ecru shade appears on the back pockets and waistband, while the legs are classic white—and totally opaque, for the record.

— emily farra, Vogue, "Wendelborn Just Launched the Coolest White Jeans Ever," 6 Apr. 2018
Two square inches is hardly enough to tell a room’s worth of difference between eggshell and ecru.

— Sunset, "Give Your Home Makeover a Shot in the Arm with This New AR App," 22 Jan. 2018
Sienna Miller selected an ecru and white pearly tweed jacket from Chanel’s Métiers d'art Paris-Hamburg 2017/18 collection.

— lindzi scharf, latimes.com, "On the night before the Oscars, the stars shine bright at the Charles Finch and Chanel dinner," 4 Mar. 2018
Or maybe ecru, which is one of my favorite words that appears with regularity in the New York Times crossword puzzle.

— ken otterbourg, Longreads, "Grief is a Jumble Word," 24 Feb. 2018
In the photo with an ecru background, the royals coordinate by donning various shades of light blue.

— erin jensen, USA TODAY, "See the adorable new family photo of William, Kate, and kids from this year's Christmas card," 18 Dec. 2017
Each pair is high-top and comes in stunning ecru crochet, blue seersucker, indigo denim, ecru denim, white leather, black leather, powder pink leather and midnight blue leather.

— alyssa hardy, Teen Vogue, "Reebok and Jonathan Simkhai Debut Collaboration at NYFW," 12 Sep. 2017
The green hues - also used in up lighting -- complemented the party's color palette of white, ecru, gold, and silver.

— sue strachan, NOLA.com, "Nine debutantes celebrated at Juleps in June soiree," 10 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ecru.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of ecru

French écru, literally, unbleached, raw, from Old French escru, from es- completely (from Latin ex-) + cru raw, from Latin crudus — more at raw

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1836

in the meaning defined above

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