amber

noun

1. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.

   “Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale.”

   “As for Amber Grice, or Amber Cane, which ist most sweet myngled with other sweete thynges: some say it commeth from the rocks of the Sea. […] Some say it is gotten by a fish called Azelum, which feedeth upon Amber Grece, and dyeth, which is taken by cunnyng fishers and the belly opened, and this precious Amber found in hym.”

   “The head of this fish is as hard as stone. The inhabitants of the Ocean sea coast affirme that this fish casteth foorth Amber; but whether the said Amber be the sperma or the excrement thereof, they cannot well determine.”

   “Slaves […] with silver Censors […] perfum'd the air with Amber, Aloes wood, and other Scents.”

2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.

   “The leaves of the foreſt were loaded with manna, pure amber dropped from every bough, honey diſtilled from the rifted rock, and the humming bee, drunk with joy, ſtrayed from flower to flower, forgetful of his burſting cells.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent or transparent fossil resin from extinct coniferous trees of the pine genus, used for jewellery, decoration and later dissolved as a binder in varnishes. One variety, blue amber, appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight.

   “With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.”

   “Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit.”

   “To shew this by example, we reade of Sabina Poppcea, to whom nothing was wanting, but shame and honestie, being extremely beloved of Nero, had the colour of her haire yellow, like Amber, which Nero esteemed much of, […] .”

   “Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […]. (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)”

4. (countable, uncountable)A yellow-orange colour.

   “And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.”

5. (Australia, British, Commonwealth, countable, uncountable)The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop when safe to do so. See also yellow light.

   “While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s.”

   “Also flashing ambers are not operational at this type of crossing.”

   “>Problem: Red-red signals are too time consuming when traffic density is higher. I don't find them time consuming at all. I find them identical to ambers.”

6. (countable, uncountable)The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.

   “an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor”

   “For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature.”

   “Double ambers revert at 10⁻⁸−10⁻⁹, and therefore, reversion is negligible. Double-amber mutants are made by crossing single-amber mutants with each other.”

7. (uncountable)Hesitance to proceed, or limited approval to proceed; an amber light.

   “[…] in response to the actions I just described, business was given the green light, and now we seem to be on amber.”

adj

1. Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of most amber.

   “They all moved safely through the first green and then the second, but when the third light turned amber Jack's taxi was the last to cross the intersection.”

   “Ahead, a cool breeze swept the pale morning sun across a grassy meadow turned amber by morning's frost.”

verb

1. (rare, transitive)To perfume or flavour with ambergris.

   “ambered wine, an ambered room”

2. (rare, transitive)To preserve in amber.

   “an ambered fly”

3. (literary, poetic, rare, transitive)To cause to take on the yellow colour of amber.

   “For purple mountains majesty; for amber waves of grain.”

   “Home to the mosaic of coloured-lit windows in the black and white houses, the fake gas lamps ambering the cobbles, sometimes the scent of applewood smoke.”

   “The firelight flickered on her rounded cheeks, ambering the pale skin.”

4. (intransitive, literary, poetic, rare)To take on the yellow colour of amber.

   “Westward along Lancaster Avenue, among the stone walls and broad driveways of imposing old houses—their lawns dappled with the shade of ambering maples and dusty, bark-peeled sycamores—”

   “[T]hough many of the pirates protested against these energetic activities[,] he was only pleasantly tired when the lowering, ambering sun began to bounce needles of gold glare off the waves ahead;”

name

1. A female given name from English, popular in the 1980s and the 1990s.

   “The youngest daughter of the Marchioness of Summerdown had one of these quaint, pretty names - Amber! - and what a pretty creature she was!”

   “And then she said softly, "Sarah - I think I'll name her Amber - for the colour of her father's eyes - "”

   “A bit raddled, maybe thirty, maybe older, tanned like a hitchhiker, dressed like a road protester, one of those older women still determinedly being a girl; all those eighties feministy still-political women were terribly interested in what Eve did. Hippie name. Amber. Ridiculous name.”

2. A surname of uncertain origin.

   “Amber, the half, generally waltzed round our forwards, and when he secured he passed the ball on to Aspinall.”

3. A male given name from Hindi.
4. A city in Rajasthan, India, also known as Amer.
5. A river in Derbyshire, England, which joins the River Derwent at Ambergate.
6. Synonym of Ambel (“language”).