red ochre
A variety of ochre, commonly used for colouring with; reddle or ruddle.
| 1572 Churchw. Acc. St. Dunstan's, Canterb. (M.S.), Payed for red oker iijd. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 417 This floure of salt is..commonly coloured with red ocre. 1681 J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. iv. §7 (1700) 35 Some ingenious Anglers..use to shave Riddle or red Oker into the Moss they keep their Worms in. 1725 Phil. Trans. XXXIII. 395 About Winford..it turns to Ruddle, or Red-Okre, used chiefly for marking of Sheep. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 240 They use many methods to darken their skins by art, painting them with red ochre [etc.]. 1836–7 Dickens Sk. Boz (1850) 69/2 The company are now promenading outside in all the dignity of wigs, spangles, red-ochre, and whitening. 1884 W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron iii. 34 The soft and more earthy varieties [of red hæmatite] constitute red ochre. |
| attrib. 1609 Dekker Lanth. & Candle-lt. viii, No Red⁓oaker man caries a face of a more filthy complexion. 1623–4 Middleton & Rowley Span. Gipsy ii. i, No red-ochre rascals umbered with soot and bacon as the English gipsies are. |
Hence
red-ochre v. Also
red-ochreing vbl. n.| 1884 Baring-Gould Mehalah x, The roof was tiled and looked very red, as though red ochred every morning. 1899 Strand Mag. Mar. 278/1 A little staining and red-ochreing. |