PALETTE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Palette

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/pˈælət/ Listen

noun

Palette n.

1.

(Paint.) A thin, oval or square board, or tablet, with a thumb hole at one end for holding it, on which a painter lays and mixes his pigments. Hence, any other object, usually one with a flat surface, used for the same purpose. (Written also pallet)

2.

Hence: The complete set of colors used by an artist or other person in creating an image, in any medium. The meaning of this term has been extended in modern times to include the set of colors used in a particular computer application, or the complete set of of colors available in computer displays or printing techniques.

3.

Hence: The complete range of resources and techniques used in any art, such as music.

4.

(Anc. Armor) One of the plates covering the points of junction at the bend of the shoulders and elbows.

5.

(Mech.) A breastplate for a breast drill.

Palette knife, a knife with a very flexible steel blade and no cutting edge, rounded at the end, used by painters to mix colors on the grinding slab or palette.

To set the palette (Paint.), to lay upon it the required pigments in a certain order, according to the intended use of them in a picture.

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Etymology of 'Palette'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Palette" Quotes from Famous Books

... set down in Fairyland. The white and pink blossoms of the fruit-trees, the strong high grass whitened by the luxuriant growth of the cow-parsley, touched here and there with the gold of the giant kingcups, and, as though the Master's palette had been robbed of all its colours to complete this radiant spring picture, the very earth of the vineyards below the fresh green of the vine sprouts shone with the rich red brown of the Wirtemberg soil, which is one more opulent charm added to the beauty of an indescribably lovely spring country. ...

— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay

... bad prose for worse poetry, (and having the fear of his maledictions before our eyes,) we throw it aside in a pet. Then comes a change over our spirit; and we dabble in paint-pots, and flourish a palette, and are great on canvass, and in chalks, and there is a mingled perfume of oil and turpentine in our studio (whilome study) that is to us highly refreshing, and good against fainting; and we make tours in search of the ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 • Various

... that trees and plants are very green indeed, and of an endless variety of shade; that stones do not glitter, save where water damps them; and that a Cuban sky is far bluer than the most expensive ultramarine on a painter's palette. ...

— The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba • Walter Goodman

... meddling and patching of forethought and afterthought, is no doubt the aim of the seemingly careless, formless handling now in vogue,—the dash which Harding says makes all the difference between what is good and what is intolerable in water-colors,—and the palette-knife-and-finger procedure of the ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 • Various

... to be considerably touched up to suit the altered requirements of the day, and that the rich hues of romantic Weber—nay, even of his giantship the great Beethoven himself—are fading visibly and rapidly. Far be it from the academics to undervalue the great significance of "modernity." Our musical palette, the orchestra, has in our own time been enriched by the addition of many brilliant colors. Music has become, if possible, still more closely allied with and indebted for inspiration to each and all of the sister arts: while the peremptory and ever-increasing demand upon the dexterity ...

— Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O • Various

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