ERMINE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ermine mean? 

• ERMINE (noun)
  The noun ERMINE has 2 senses:

1. the expensive white fur of the ermine

2. mustelid of northern hemisphere in its white winter coat

  Familiarity information: ERMINE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ERMINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The expensive white fur of the ermine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("ermine" is a kind of...):

fur; pelt (the dressed hairy coat of a mammal)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Mustelid of northern hemisphere in its white winter coat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

ermine; Mustela erminea; shorttail weasel

Hypernyms ("ermine" is a kind of...):

weasel (small carnivorous mammal with short legs and elongated body and neck)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ermine"):

stoat (the ermine in its brown summer coat with black-tipped tail)

 Context examples 

Where all this difference then between the ermine cloak and the leathern tunic, if what they cover is the same?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The two younger of the trio (fine girls of sixteen and seventeen) had grey beaver hats, then in fashion, shaded with ostrich plumes, and from under the brim of this graceful head-dress fell a profusion of light tresses, elaborately curled; the elder lady was enveloped in a costly velvet shawl, trimmed with ermine, and she wore a false front of French curls.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There were milkmaids and shepherdesses, with brightly colored bodices and golden spots all over their gowns; and princesses with most gorgeous frocks of silver and gold and purple; and shepherds dressed in knee breeches with pink and yellow and blue stripes down them, and golden buckles on their shoes; and princes with jeweled crowns upon their heads, wearing ermine robes and satin doublets; and funny clowns in ruffled gowns, with round red spots upon their cheeks and tall, pointed caps. And, strangest of all, these people were all made of china, even to their clothes, and were so small that the tallest of them was no higher than Dorothy's knee.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

That is he in the rose-colored doublet with the ermine.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The prince hath other things to think upon, quoth Sir William de Pakington; but if you be a Mackworth you must be a Mackworth of Normanton, and indeed I see now that your coat is sable and ermine.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A jupon of dark blue cloth, tagged with buckles and pendants of gold, seemed but a sombre and plain attire amidst the wealth of silk and ermine and gilt tissue of fustian with which he was surrounded.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here too were the beautiful brunettes of the Gironde, with eyes which out-flashed their jewels, while beside them rode their blonde sisters of England, clear cut and aquiline, swathed in swans'-down and in ermine, for the air was biting though the sun was bright.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here were the gold mullets of the Pakingtons, the sable and ermine of the Mackworths, the scarlet bars of the Wakes, the gold and blue of the Grosvenors, the cinque-foils of the Cliftons, the annulets of the Musgraves, the silver pinions of the Beauchamps, the crosses of the Molineaux, the bloody chevron of the Woodhouses, the red and silver of the Worsleys, the swords of the Clarks, the boars'-heads of the Lucies, the crescents of the Boyntons, and the wolf and dagger of the Lipscombs.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)