From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pastel \Pas"tel\, noun [F.; cf. It. pastello. Cf. {Pastil}.]
1. A crayon made of a paste composed of a color ground with gum water. [Sometimes incorrectly written {pastil}.] ''Charming heads in pastel.'' --W. Black.
2. (Bot.) A plant affording a blue dye; the woad ({Isatis tinctoria}); also, the dye itself.
3. a drawing using pastel, or of a pastel shade.
4. the art or process of drawing with pastels.
5. any of various light or pale colors.
6. a light literary work, as a sketch.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: lacking in body or vigor; "faded pastel charms of the naive music"
2: delicate and pale in color; "pastel pink"
noun
1: any of various pale or light colors
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
95 Moby Thesaurus words for "pastel": air brush, art paper, black and white, brouillon, brush, camera lucida, camera obscura, canvas, cartoon, chalk, charcoal, charcoal drawing, chiaroscuro, crayon, creamy, delicate, delineation, design, diagram, doodle, draft, drawing, drawing paper, drawing pencil, drier, easel, ebauche, eggshell, esquisse, fair, fixative, flat, gloss, graph, ground, iridescent, lay figure, light, light-colored, light-hued, line drawing, maulstick, medium, mellow, mother-of-pearl, nacreous, opalescent, paint, paintbrush, pale, palette, palette knife, pastel color, patinaed, pearly, pen-and-ink, pencil, pencil drawing, pigments, quiet, rough copy, rough draft, rough outline, sad, scratchboard, semigloss, siccative, silhouette, silver-print drawing, simple, sinopia, sketch, sketchbook, sketchpad, sober, soft, soft color, soft-colored, soft-hued, softened, softness, somber, spatula, spray gun, study, stump, subdued, subtle, subtle color, sweet, tender, tracing, varnish, vignette, whitish
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