pastel

noun

1. a color having a soft, subdued shade.
2. a kind of dried paste made of pigments ground with chalk and compounded with gum water.
3. a chalklike crayon made from such paste.
4. the art of drawing with such crayons.
5. a drawing so made.
6. a short, light prose study or sketch.

adjective

7. having a soft, subdued shade.
8. drawn with pastels: a pastel portrait.

noun

1. the woad plant.
2. the dye made from it.

noun

1. 1. a substance made of ground pigment bound with gum, used for making sticks for drawing
   2. a crayon of this
   3. a drawing done in such crayons
2. the medium or technique of pastel drawing
3. a pale delicate colour
4. a light prose work, esp a poetic one
5. another name for woad

adjective

6. (of a colour) pale; delicatepastel blue

n.1660s, “crayons, chalk-like pigment used in crayons,” from French pastel “crayon,” from Italian pastello “a pastel,” literally “material reduced to a paste,” from Late Latin pastellus “dye from the leaves of the woad plant,” diminutive of pasta (see pasta). Meaning “pale or light color” (like that of pastels) first recorded 1899. As an adjective from 1884.