teal

/til/

/til/

Other forms: teals

Teal things are colored a deep shade of blue-green, like the sparkling teal water in a tropical lagoon. The color gets its name from a kind of duck, also called a teal.

The common teal is a migratory water bird, a duck with a teal stripe on its head and wings. The origin of the word is unclear, but we know the bird came first and then the color—the green-blue teal was first used in print in a 1923 clothing advertisement. It was added as an official color to the Plochere Color System, an interior design reference, in 1948, and became a Crayola crayon color in 1990.

Definitions of teal

1. noun

   a blue-green color or pigment
   synonyms: blue green, bluish green

   types:

   cyan

   a primary subtractive color for light; has a blue-green color

   type of:

   green, greenness

   green color or pigment; resembling the color of growing grass
2. adjective

   of a bluish shade of green
   synonyms: blue-green, bluish green, cyan

   chromatic

   being, having, or characterized by hue
3. noun

   any of various small short-necked dabbling river ducks of Europe and America
   types:

   Anas crecca, green-winged teal, greenwing

   common teal of Eurasia and North America

   Anas discors, blue-winged teal, bluewing

   American teal

   Anas querquedula, garganey

   small Eurasian teal

   type of:

   duck

   small wild or domesticated web-footed broad-billed swimming bird usually having a depressed body and short legs