DYEING

DYE'ING was a familiar art in Bible-times. The Phoenicians and Egyptians were skilful in it. From Ex 26:1, 2 Kgs 22:14; Gen 35:25 it is evident that at the Exodus the Israelites understood the art, and we are the better able to picture the process because we find so minute an account of it on the Egyptian monuments. There is, however, no precise mention of dyers in the O.T. In the N.T., Lydia is spoken of as "a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira." Acts 16:14. This city was famed for its dyers; inscriptions testify to the existence of a guild of them, and Lydia probably dealt in the cloth thus colored, or possibly in the dye itself, which is procured from a shell-fish.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

The process or art of fixing coloring matters permanently and uniformly in the fibers of wool, cotton, etc.