Definition of "orchil" [or•chil]

• Any of several lichens, chiefly of the genera Roccella and Lecanora, from which a dye is obtained. (noun)
• The violet dyestuff obtained from any of these organisms. (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.

• "In 1758, Cuthbert Gordon received a British patent for a substance he called cudbear, the result of a new processing method he developed for the traditional dyestuff orchil."
• "The coloring parts of resinous (resin-like) dyestuffs are extracted from substances that are insoluble in water, for example annatto, indigo, carthamus, and orchil."
• "He found that such fugitive colors as orchil, safflower, and indigo-carmine fade very rapidly in moist air, less rapidly in dry air, and that they experience little or no change in hydrogen or in a vacuum."