Definition of "bister" [bis•ter]

• A water-soluble, yellowish-brown pigment. (noun)
• A grayish to yellowish brown. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "( "bister") and Cogenhoe ( "cook-no"), I am very tolerant of eccentric local pronunciations."
• "Joanna could see the lines of sleeplessness on his face beneath a thick coating of rice powder and rouge; the dark rings of bister and fatigue made the queer eyes even paler."
• "Those great eyes, smudged in with bister — aha, pools to drown love in!"