redden

Etymology

From red + -en.

verb

  1. (intransitive) To become red or redder.
    But I will make you blush; nay, I will make you redden all over. 1769, Plautus, Bonnell Thornton (translation), "The Captives", The Comedies of Plautus, T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, page 341
    Ere this had redden'd with my odious blood. 1794, William Hamilton, "Mithridates", Poems on Several Occasions, W. Gordon, page 258
    1997, Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid, Faber & Faber, "Phaethon," lines 227-9, p. 32, When the sun-god saw that, and the reddening sky And the waning moon seeming to thaw He called the Hours to yoke the horses.
  2. (transitive) To make red or redder.
    God redden your pale blood! 1884, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Becket, act I, scene 4
    […] If the cloud that hangs Upon the heart and round the mind Cleared from the north and in that height The sun appeared and reddened great Belshazzar's brow, O, ruler, rude With rubies then, attend me now. 1942, Wallace Stevens, “Country Words”, in The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, Knopf, published 1971, page 207
    Then listen Thebes, nurse of Semele, Crown your hair with ivy Turn your fingers green with bryony Redden your walls with berries. 1969, Wole Soyinka, The Bacchae of Euripides, Norton, published 1974, page 19

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