Cop·per n.
 1. A common metal of a reddish color, both ductile and malleable, and very tenacious. It is one of the best conductors of heat and electricity. Symbol Cu. Atomic weight 63.3. It is one of the most useful metals in itself, and also in its alloys, brass and bronze.
 Note: ☞ Copper is the only metal which occurs native abundantly in large masses; it is found also in various ores, of which the most important are chalcopyrite, chalcocite, cuprite, and malachite. Copper mixed with tin forms bell metal; with a smaller proportion, bronze; and with zinc, it forms brass, pinchbeck, and other alloys.
 2. A coin made of copper; a penny, cent, or other minor coin of copper. [Colloq.]
    My friends filled my pockets with coppers.   --Franklin.
 3. A vessel, especially a large boiler, made of copper.
 4. pl. Specifically Naut., the boilers in the galley for cooking; as, a ship's coppers.
 Note: ☞ Copper is often used adjectively, commonly in the sense of made or consisting of copper, or resembling copper; as, a copper boiler, tube, etc.
    All in a hot and copper sky.   --Coleridge.
 Note: It is sometimes written in combination; as, copperplate, coppersmith, copper-colored.
 Copper finch. Zool. See Chaffinch.
 Copper glance, or Vitreous copper. Min. See Chalcocite.
 Indigo copper. Min. See Covelline.


 Co·vel·line Co·vel·lite  n.  Min. A native sulphide of copper, occuring in masses of a dark blue color; -- hence called indigo copper.

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 In·di·go a. Having the color of, pertaining to, or derived from, indigo.
 Indigo berry Bot., the fruit of the West Indian shrub Randia aculeata, used as a blue dye.
 Indigo bird Zool., a small North American finch (Cyanospiza cyanea). The male is indigo blue in color. Called also indigo bunting.
 Indigo blue. (a) The essential coloring material of commercial indigo, from which it is obtained as a dark blue earthy powder, with a reddish luster, C16H10N2O2, which may be crystallized by sublimation. Indigo blue is also made from artificial amido cinnamic acid, and from artificial isatine; and these methods are of great commercial importance. Called also indigotin. (b) A dark, dull blue color like the indigo of commerce.
 Indigo brown Chem., a brown resinous substance found in crude indigo.
 Indigo copper Min., covellite.
 Indigo green, a green obtained from indigo.
 Indigo plant Bot., a leguminous plant of several species (genus Indigofera), from which indigo is prepared. The different varieties are natives of Asia, Africa, and America.  Several species are cultivated, of which the most important are the Indigofera tinctoria, or common indigo plant, the Indigofera Anil, a larger species, and the Indigofera disperma.
 Indigo purple, a purple obtained from indigo.
 Indigo red, a dyestuff, isomeric with indigo blue, obtained from crude indigo as a dark brown amorphous powder.
 Indigo snake Zool., the gopher snake.
 Indigo white, a white crystalline powder obtained by reduction from indigo blue, and by oxidation easily changed back to it; -- called also indigogen.
 Indigo yellow, a substance obtained from indigo.

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