OXFORD DICTIONARY
ink, n. & v.
--n.
1 a a coloured fluid used for writing with a pen, marking with a rubber stamp, etc. b a thick paste used in printing, duplicating, in ball-point pens, etc.
2 Zool. a black liquid ejected by a cuttlefish, octopus, etc. to confuse a predator.
--v.tr.
1 (usu. foll. by in, over, etc.) mark with ink.
2 cover (type etc.) with ink before printing.
3 apply ink to.
4 (as inked adj.) Austral. sl. drunk.
ink-blot test = RORSCHACH TEST. ink-cap any fungus of the genus Coprinus. ink-horn hist. a small portable horn container for ink. ink out obliterate with ink. ink-pad an ink-soaked pad, usu. in a box, used for inking a rubber stamp etc. ink-well a pot for ink usu. housed in a hole in a desk.
inker n.
ME enke, inke f. OF enque f. LL encau(s)tum f. Gk egkauston purple ink used by Roman emperors for signature (as EN-(2), CAUSTIC)
THESAURUS
ink
autograph, ballpoint pen, bedarken, besmirch, black, blackboard, blacken, blackwash, blot, blotch, chalk, charcoal, coal, cork, crayon, crow, darken, denigrate, dinge, ebon, ebonize, ebony, eraser, inkhorn, inkstand, inkwell, invisible
ink, jet, lead pencil, melanize, murk, nib, night, nigrify, oversmoke, pen, pitch, plume, quill, raven, reed, shade, shadow, signature, slate, sloe, smirch, smoke, smudge, smut, smutch, soot, stencil, style, stylograph, stylus, subscribe, sympathetic
ink, table, tablet, tar
ROGET THESAURUS
ink
Blackness
N
blackness darkness, (want of light), swartliness, lividity, dark color, tone, color, chiaroscuro, nigrification, infuscation, jet,
ink, ebony, coal pitch, soot, charcoal, sloe, smut, raven, crow, negro, blackamoor, man of color, nigger, darkie, Ethiop, black, buck, nigger, coon, sambo, lampblack, ivory black, blueblack, writing
ink, printing
ink, printer's
ink, Indian
ink, India
ink, in mourning.