COLORS
colors, colours
(noun) a flag that shows its nationality
colors, colours
(noun) a distinguishing emblem; “his tie proclaimed his school colors”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Noun
colors
plural of color
Verb
colors
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of color
Anagrams
• corols, crools
Source: Wiktionary
COLOR
Col"or, n. [Written also colour.] Etym: [OF. color, colur, colour, F.
couleur, L. color; prob. akin to celare to conceal (the color taken
as that which covers). See Helmet.]
1. A property depending on the relations of light to the eye, by
which individual and specific differences in the hues and tints of
objects are apprehended in vision; as, gay colors; sad colors, etc.
Note: The sensation of color depends upon a peculiar function of the
retina or optic nerve, in consequence of which rays of light produce
different effects according to the length of their waves or
undulations, waves of a certain length producing the sensation of
red, shorter waves green, and those still shorter blue, etc. White,
or ordinary, light consists of waves of various lengths so blended as
to produce no effect of color, and the color of objects depends upon
their power to absorb or reflect a greater or less proportion of the
rays which fall upon them.
2. Any hue distinguished from white or black.
3. The hue or color characteristic of good health and spirits; ruddy
complexion.
Give color to my pale cheek. Shak.
4. That which is used to give color; a paint; a pigment; as, oil
colors or water colors.
5. That which covers or hides the real character of anything;
semblance; excuse; disguise; appearance.
They had let down the boat into the sea, under color as though they
would have cast anchors out of the foreship. Acts xxvii. 30.
That he should die is worthy policy; But yet we want a color for his
death. Shak.
6. Shade or variety of character; kind; species.
Boys and women are for the most part cattle of this color. Shak.
7. A distinguishing badge, as a flag or similar symbol (usually in
the plural); as, the colors or color of a ship or regiment; the
colors of a race horse (that is, of the cap and jacket worn by the
jockey).
In the United States each regiment of infantry and artillery has two
colors, one national and one regimental. Farrow.
8. (Law)
Definition: An apparent right; as where the defendant in trespass gave to
the plaintiff an appearance of title, by stating his title specially,
thus removing the cause from the jury to the court. Blackstone.
Note: Color is express when it is asverred in the pleading, and
implied when it is implied in the pleading. Body color. See under
Body.
– Color blindness, total or partial inability to distinguish or
recognize colors. See Daltonism.
– Complementary color, one of two colors so related to each other
that when blended together they produce white light; -- so called
because each color makes up to the other what it lacks to make it
white. Artificial or pigment colors, when mixed, produce effects
differing from those of the primary colors, in consequence of partial
absorption.
– Of color (as persons, races, etc.), not of the white race; --
commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or
mixed.
– Primary colors, those developed from the solar beam by the prism,
viz., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, which are
reduced by some authors to three, -- red, green, and violet-blue.
These three are sometimes called fundamental colors.
– Subjective or Accidental color, a false or spurious color seen in
some instances, owing to the persistence of the luminous impression
upon the retina, and a gradual change of its character, as where a
wheel perfectly white, and with a circumference regulary subdiveded,
is made to revolve rapidly over a dark object, the teeth, of the
wheel appear to the eye of different shades of color varying with the
rapidity of rotation. See Accidental colors, under Accidental.
Col"or, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Colored; p. pr. & vb. n. Coloring.] Etym:
[F. colorer.]
1. To change or alter the bue or tint of, by dyeing, staining,
painting, etc.; to dye; to tinge; to aint; to stain.
The rays, to speak properly, are not colored; in them there is
nothing else than a certain power and disposition to stir up a
sensation of this or that color. Sir I. Newton.
2. To change or alter, as if by dyeing or painting; to give a false
appearance to; usually, to give a specious appearance to; to cause to
appear attractive; to make plausible; to palliate or excuse; as, the
facts were colored by his prejudices.
He colors the falsehood of Æneas by an express command from Jupiter
to forsake the queen. Dryden.
3. To hide. [Obs.]
That by his fellowship he color might Both his estate and love from
skill of any wight. Spenser.
Col"or, v. i.
Definition: To acquire color; to turn red, especially in the face; to
blush.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition