The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cardinal \Car"di*nal\, n. [F. carinal, It. cardinale, LL. cardinalis (ecclesi[ae] Roman[ae]). See Cardinal, a.]
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(R. C. Ch.) One of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the pope's council, or the sacred college.
The clerics of the supreme Chair are called Cardinals, as undoubtedly adhering more nearly to the hinge by which all things are moved.
--Pope Leo IX.Note: The cardinals are appointed by the pope. Since the time of Sixtus V., their number can never exceed seventy (six of episcopal rank, fifty priests, fourteen deacons), and the number of cardinal priests and deacons is seldom full. When the papel chair is vacant a pope is elected by the college of cardinals from among themselves. The cardinals take precedence of all dignitaries except the pope. The principal parts of a cardinal's costume are a red cassock, a rochet, a short purple mantle, and a red hat with a small crown and broad brim, with cords and tessels of a special pattern hanging from it.
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A woman's short cloak with a hood.
Where's your cardinal! Make haste.
--Lloyd. Mulled red wine.
--Hotten.-
the cardinal bird, also called the northern cardinal.
Cardinal bird, or Cardinal grosbeak (Zo["o]l.), an American song bird ( Cardinalis cardinalis, or Cardinalis Virginianus), of the family Fringillid[ae], or finches of which the male has a bright red plumage, and both sexes have a high, pointed crest on its head; -- it is also called the northern cardinal or eastern cardinal. The males have loud and musical notes resembling those of a fife. Other related species are also called cardinal birds.
Cardinal flower (Bot.), an herbaceous plant ( Lobelia cardinalis) bearing brilliant red flowers of much beauty.
Cardinal red, a color like that of a cardinal's cassock, hat, etc.; a bright red, darker than scarlet, and between scarlet and crimson.
Wiktionary
n. A bright red colour, between scarlet and crimson.
Usage examples of "cardinal red".
This ugly little man in cardinal red was telling Aenea that he knew how she had arrived on T'ien Shan and that she could not escape that way.
Doug had to turn his whole body to see his stepfather's cardinal red spacesuit standing beside him.
He'd have to say something, do something that would keep Michaelson on the platform, at least for the couple of minutes it would take for the secmen to arrive in their cardinal red body armor, with their stickyfoam and power rifles loaded with gelslugs.
The trees surrounding the lake had begun to change color and were far more vivid in their yellow and orange and cardinal red shades than the ones he had seen in the city and suburbs closer in.
The silvery, mirrorlike surface reflects the planet's magnificent cardinal red sky.