From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpastelpas‧tel1 /ˈpæstl $ pæˈstel/ noun 1 a) [countable, uncountable]AV a small coloured stick for drawing pictures with, made of a substance like chalk b) [countable]AV a picture drawn with pastels2 [countable usually plural]CC a light colour such as pale blue or pink a room beautifully furnished in soft pastels
Examples from the Corpus
pastel• Of these, Guitar has the largest range with 60 pastels.• a pastel portrait• White, cream, and pastels suit me better than dark colours.• The undulations in Rough or Not paper allow the dusty pastel more surface area to grip to.• Hey, there are even pastels like peach and lilac this season, so nobody has to be a wallflower.• The area becomes a study in pastels.• For the first time, she did not show sculpture, just pastels and watercolors.• When he discovered oil pastels however, there was no turning back.• The acid-sweet pastels of 1950s' food photography come to mind.• Graphic animal prints usually work better with strong colors than pastels.pastelpastel2 adjective [only before noun] 1 CCpastel colours are light and pale pastel blue The walls were painted in pastel shades.► see thesaurus at colour2 AVdrawn using pastels a set of four small pastel drawingsExamples from the Corpus
pastel• Before the baby was born Jenny bought some pretty, pastel baby clothes.• I saw Peter wearing a pastel blue cotton sweater, sheer and delicate-a very fine sweater.• Sensiq's lovely pastel colours reflect the sunny feeling and identify your ideal skin products according to skin type.• Mrs Singh preferred saris in pastel colours, such as salmon pink.• the child's pastel drawing• But every day we see more pastel patches of red, purple, yellow, and pale green of swelling buds.• Harding a pastel portrait of Lance Henly.• Humble houses were cobbled together from leavings stuccoed over and painted in pastel tones of pink, ochre and yellow.• It's light and bright inside due to the pastel yellow inner.Origin pastel1 (1500-1600) French Italian pastello, from Late Latin pasta; → PASTE1 