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A dyestuff consisting of the dried bodies of females of the Coccus cacti, an insect native in Mexico, Central America, etc., and found on several species of cactus, esp. Opuntia cochinellifera.

l and Southern Anerica, of the Cactus familly, extensively cultivated for the sake of the cochineal insect, which lives on it.

A beautiful pigment, or a lake, of this color, prepared from cochineal, and used in miniature painting.

bale or package. covered with hide, or with wood bound with hide; as, a ceroon of indigo, cochineal, etc.

A genus of hemipterous insects, including scale insects, and the cochineal insect (Coccus cacti).

fig, practically nothing; a fico; -- used in scorn or contempt. "A fig for Peter." Shak. Cochineal fig. See Conchineal fig. -- Fig dust, a preparation of fine oatmeal for feeding caged birds. -- Fig faun, one of a class of rural deities or monsters supposed to live on figs. "Therefore shall dragons dwell there with…

Small grains or dust of cochineal or the coccus insect.

or muslin; -- used for trimming. -- Hamburg lake, a purplish crimson pigment resembling cochineal.

The dried bodies of the females of a scale insect (Coccus ilicis), allied to the cochineal insect, and found on several species of oak near the Mediterranean. They are round, about the size of a pea, contain coloring matter analogous to carmine, and are used in dyeing. They were anciently thought to be of a vegetable n…

A cactaceous plant (Nopalea cochinellifera), originally Mexican, on which the cochineal insect feeds, and from which it is collected. The name is sometimes given to other species of Cactaceæ.

A plantation of the nopal for raising the cochineal insect.

e chlorides of (stannic) tin and ammonium, formerly much used as a mordant for madder and cochineal. -- Pink saucer, a small saucer, the inner surface of which is covered with a pink pigment.

A sulphide of arsenic and silver of a beautiful cochineal-red color, occurring in rhombohedral crystals, and also massive; ruby silver.

A red dyestuff, used as a substitute for cochineal, archil, etc. It consists of the sodium salt of a complex azo derivative of naphtol.