See Also: Indigo(medicine)
indigo(dictionary)
indigo(encyclopedia)
indigo(dictionary)
indigo snake(encyclopedia)
indigo plant(encyclopedia)
indigo blue(dictionary)
indigo carmine(medicine)
indigo blue(medicine)
IndiGo Airlines(tourism)

indigo (iou)



indigo noun & adjective. Also indico. M16.
[Spanish indico from Latin indicum from Greek indikon, from indikos: see INDIC.]
A. noun. Pl. -os.
A dark blue powder used as a vat dye, orig. obtained from certain plants but now mainly made synthetically. Also, the chief chemical constituent of this, indigotin. M16.
b. A kind or sample of this dye. E17.
Any of various plants, esp. of the tropical leguminous genus Indigofera, from which indigo or a similar dye is obtainable. E17.
bastard indigo US a leguminous plant of the genus Amorpha, esp. A. fruticosa. false indigo (a) a leguminous plant of the genus Baptisia, esp. B. tinctoria; (b) = bastard indigo above.
A deep violet-blue, located in the spectrum between blue and violet. E17.
Comb.: indigo-bird (a) a N. American bunting, Passerina cyanea, the male of which has bright blue plumage; (b) any of several parasitic African weaver-birds of the genus Vidua and the subfamily Viduinae, the males of which have glossy plumage of a blue- or purplish-black colour; indigo bunting = indigo-bird (a) above; indigo finch = indigo-bird above; indigo plant = sense 2 above; indigo snake a large blue-black, brown, or particoloured colubrid snake, Drymarchon corais, found in the south-eastern US and tropical America; also called cribo, gopher snake; indigo white a white soluble crystalline compound, C16H12N2O2, obtained by reduction of indigotin.
b. attrib. or as adjective. Of a deep violet-blue colour. M19.