cadmium yellow, n. 1. The colour of a room before someone notices something is missing. 2. A temperature of attention: unhurried, thick with presence, applied generously and without technique. 3. (Obsolete.) The belief that domestic warmth is structurally sound. See also: burnt sienna (the version of the afternoon you'll remember). See also: prussian blue (the version that actually happened). Antonym: the rectangular absence between couch cushions where a device falls not into fabric but into the sudden awareness that order was always provisional. Usage note: Do not confuse with happiness. Cadmium yellow is heavier than happiness. It contains lead. It is warm the way a room is warm before you reach for something that isn't there and the whole composition buckles at the waist.