Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GREEN, v.t.

To make green. This is used by Thomson and by Barlow, but is not an elegant word, nor indeed hardly legitimate, in the sense in which these writers use it. “Spring greens the year.” “God greens the groves.” The only legitimate sense of this verb, if used, would be, to dye green, or to change to a green color. A plant growing in a dark room is yellow; let this plant be carried into the open air, and the rays of the sun will green it. This use would correspond with the use of whiten, blacken, redden.