palette

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pal=ette

CIDE DICTIONARY

palette, n. [See Pallet a thin board.].

•  A thin, oval or square board, or tablet, with a thumb hole at one end for holding it, on which a painter lays and mixes his pigments. Hence, any other object, usually one with a flat surface, used for the same purpose.  [1913 Webster]
•  The complete set of colors used by an artist or other person in creating an image, in any medium. The meaning of this term has been extended in modern times to include the set of colors used in a particular computer application, or the complete set of of colors available in computer displays or printing techniques.  [PJC]
•  The complete range of resources and techniques used in any art, such as music.  [PJC]
•  One of the plates covering the points of junction at the bend of the shoulders and elbows.  Fairholt.  [1913 Webster]
•  A breastplate for a breast drill.  [1913 Webster]

Palette knife, a knife with a very flexible steel blade and no cutting edge, rounded at the end, used by painters to mix colors on the grinding slab or palette. -- To set the palette (Paint.), to lay upon it the required pigments in a certain order, according to the intended use of them in a picture. Fairholt.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

palette, n.
1 a thin board or slab or other surface, usu. with a hole for the thumb, on which an artist lays and mixes colours.
2 the range of colours used by an artist.

Idiom

palette-knife
1 a thin steel blade with a handle for mixing colours or applying or removing paint.
2 a kitchen knife with a long blunt round-ended flexible blade.

Etymology

F, dimin. of pale shovel f. L pala spade

THESAURUS

palette

air brush, art paper, brush, camera lucida, camera obscura, canvas, chalk, charcoal, crayon, drawing paper, drawing pencil, drier, easel, fixative, ground, lay figure, maulstick, medium, paint, paintbrush, palette knife, pastel, pencil, pigments, scratchboard, siccative, sketchbook, sketchpad, spatula, spray gun, stump, varnish

ROGET THESAURUS

palette

Painting

N painting, depicting, drawing, design, perspective, sciagraphy, skiagraphy, chiaroscuro, composition, treatment, historical painting, portrait painting, miniature painting, landscape painting, marine painting, still life, flower painting, scene painting, scenography, school, style, the grand style, high art, genre, portraiture, ornamental art, monochrome, polychrome, grisaille, pallet, palette, easel, brush, pencil, stump, black lead, charcoal, crayons, chalk, pastel, paint, watercolor, body color, oil color, oils, oil paint, varnish, priming, gouache, tempera, distemper, fresco, water glass, enamel, encaustic painting, mosaic, tapestry, photography, heliography, color photography, sun painting, graphics, computer graphics, picture, painting, piece, tableau, canvas, oil painting, fresco, cartoon, easel picture, cabinet picture, draught, draft, pencil drawing, water color drawing, etching, charcoal, pen-and-ink, sketch, outline, study, photograph, color photograph, black-and-white photograph, holograph, heliograph, daguerreotype, talbotype, calotype, heliotype, negative, positive, print, glossy print, matte print, enlargement, reduction, life-size print, instant photo, Polaroid photo, technicolor, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Polaroid, portrait, whole length, full length, half length, kitcat, head, miniature, shade, silhouette, profile, landscape, seapiece, view, scene, prospect, panorama, diorama, still life, picture gallery, exhibit, studio, atelier, pinacotheca, painted, pictorial, graphic, picturesque, pencil, oil, in pencil, fecit, delineavit, mutum est pictura poema.