Definition of "cochineal"

cochineal

/ˌkɒtʃɪˈniː(ə)l/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural cochineals
1. (entomology) A species of insect (Dactylopius coccus).
2. A vivid red dye made from the bodies of cochineal insects.
3. The vivid red color of this dye.
  Quotations
  I just keep staring at all the ink we have, that wild variety of color, everything from rootbeer, midnight blue and cochineal to mauve, light doe, lilac, south sea green, maize, even pelican black, all lined up in these plastic caps, […]
  2000, Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves, page 26
adjective
not comparable
1. Possessing a vivid red color, as produced from dying with cochineal.
  Quotations
  The principal imports arriving by sea, then as previously, were textiles, among them coarse cotton cloth, known as Surat, the Indian port from which they were shipped, as well as blue cotton cloth and cochineal cloth called kemis
  1997, The Ethiopian Borderlands. Richard Pankhurst. 1997.
  Batavus, of somewhat the same shade, was slightly taller, and perhaps with a little more cochineal color.
  1927, Breeze Hill News‎