The Collaborative International Dictionary
Umber \Um"ber\, n. [F. ombre ocherous ore of iron, terre d'ombre, It. terra d'ombra, literally, earth of shadow or shade, L. umbra shadow, shade. Cf. Umber, 3 & 4, Umbrage.]
(Paint.) A brown or reddish pigment used in both oil and water colors, obtained from certain natural clays variously colored by the oxides of iron and manganese. It is commonly heated or burned before being used, and is then called burnt umber; when not heated, it is called raw umber. See Burnt umber, below.
An umbrere. [Obs.]
[F. ombre, umbre, L. umbra.] (Zo["o]l.) See Grayling, 1.
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[Cf. NL. scopus umbretta, F. ombrette; probably fr. L. umbra shade, in allusion to its dark brown color. See Umber a pigment.] (Zo["o]l.) An African wading bird ( Scopus umbretta) allied to the storks and herons. It is dull dusky brown, and has a large occipital crest. Called also umbrette, umbre, and umber bird.
Burnt umber (Paint.), a pigment made by burning raw umber, which is changed by this process from an olive brown to a bright reddish brown.
Cologne umber, or German umber, a brown pigment obtained from lignite. See Cologne earth.
Wiktionary
a. Of a deep brown colour. n. A deep brown colour.
WordNet
n. dark brown pigment obtained by heating umber
a medium to dark brown color [syn: chocolate, coffee, deep brown, umber]
Usage examples of "burnt umber".
By comparison to this busy overabundance the polished floor seemed austere, parquetried as it was with wood every shade of brown between palest blond and burnt umber.
But his palette remained crowded with dabs and mixtures of American Vermilion, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, and Ivory Black.
In a storm of proffered adjectives I stood in the piazza and watched spellbound as the Great Council of Venice marched along the Molo, as the High Mass was sung from the altar of San Marco, as the ships moved out on the glassy waves of the Adriatic, as the brushes dipped to gather up their colors and mix them in the earthen potsrose madder, vermilion, carmine, cerise, cerulean, turquoise, viridian, yellow ocher, burnt umber, quinacridone, citrine, sepia, Caput Mortuum Violet oh, too lovelyand of a thick lacquer, the name Dragon's blood.
Fired up by that ambition, he turned the Supper on end and began to squeeze burnt umber directly onto the canvas, spreading it with a palette knife until the scene beneath was completely obscured.
The first, that with so much burnt umber on his hands he looked as though he'd been playing with his own shit.
He had chosen burnt umber for his pack color, the light burnished it with a rich glow.
A small herd of some ancient, long-extinct beast rolled soft thunder through the hard earth beneath her moccasined feet, running parallel to the path she had chosen along a ridge, their humped backs appearing every now and then above the crest - a blurred flow of burnt umber.
That sand is orange, tan, blond, yellow, sienna, umber, burnt umber, ochre.
Amid this majestic rubble were cones and pillars of gold and burnt umber, stalactites and stalagmites that had been growing for countless ages and now lay broken and scattered.