color 
T thought I should have had a tomb hung round 
With tatter'd colours, broken spears. 
Liixt'i* Dominion, iv. 5. 
An author compares a ragged coin to a tattered colour*. 
Aildisun. 
The national colors were waving in all directions. 
0. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. 26. 
(b) A distinctive marking by color or colors, as 
of a badge or dress ; specially colored insignia ; 
hence, any symbol or mark of identification: 
as, the colors of a party ; the colors of a boxer; 
the colors of a rider or an owner in a horse- 
race. 
In whate countre thay kaire that knyghttes myghte knawc 
Iche kynge be his colour*. 
Morte Arthure (E. E. T. S.), L 2304. 
7t. An ornament of style. 
Figures of poetrie, 
Or coloures of rethorik. 
Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 859. 
8. Kind; sort; variety; character; description. 
Boys and women are for the most part cattle of this 
colour. Shak., As you Like It, iii. 2. 
He [Henry VIII.] could send Cromwell to the block the 
moment he discovered that he was pursuing designs of a 
colour which did not recommend itself to him. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 244. 
9. Appearance; aspect. 
Nothing is further from colour or ground of truth, than 
that which you write of Sir Robert Drury's going to mass. 
Donne, Letters, xxxii. 
A business difference between communes will take on 
much the same colour as a dispute between diggers in the 
lawless West, and will lead as directly to the arbitrament 
of blows. Contemporary Rev., LI. 479. 
10. That which serves to hide the real char- 
acter of something and give a false appearance ; 
mere appearance; false show; pretense; guise. 
Why hunt I then for colour or excuse ? 
Shak., Lucrece, 1. 267. 
Under the colour of commending him, 
I have access my own love to prefer. 
Shak., T. G. of V., iv. 2. 
My father instantly clapped his hand on my uncle Toby's 
mouth, under colour of whispering in his ear. 
Sterne, Tristram Shandy, iv. 29. 
lit. Reason; ground; especially, good reason ; 
excuse. 
The most colour of comparison is in the other twaine. 
. . . And thus as I said, in these two things may you 
catche most colour to compare the wealthy mans merite 
with the merite of tribulation. 
Sir T. More, Cumfort against Tribulation (1578), fol. 50. 
I have the wars for my colour, and my pension shall 
seem the more reasonable. Sludc., 2 Hen. IV., I. 2. 
What has Aecius done, to be destroy'd ? 
At least, I would have a colour. 
Fletcher, Valentinian, iv. 3. 
Did I attempt her with a thread-bare name, 
Un-napt with meritorious actions, 
She might with colour disallow my suit. 
Beau, and Ft., Knight of Malta, 1. 1. 
12. An apparent or prima facie right, pretext, 
or ground : especially used in legal phraseology, 
and commonly implying falsity or some defect 
of strict right : as, to extort money under color 
of office ; to hold possession under color of title. 
Finding no colour to detaine me, they dismiss'd me 
with much pitty of my ignorance. 
Evelyn, Diary, Dec. 25, 1657. 
[He] went also to the houses of those few families planted 
there, and forced some of them to swear allegiance to the 
crown of Sweden, though he had no color of title to that 
place. Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 170. 
13. In mining, a particle or scale of gold, as 
shown when auriferous gravel or sand is panned 
or washed out with the batea or horn-spoon. 
[Cordilleran mining region.] 14. In phren.. 
one of the perceptive faculties, its supposed 
function being that of giving the power of per- 
ceiving colors or of distinguishing their shades. 
15. In her. See titicture. 16. Animation; 
vividness. 
Ho couthe kyndliche with colour discriue. 
Yf alle the worlde were whit other swanwhit alle thynges? 
Piers Plowman (C), xxi. 214. 
17. In imisic: (a) The various rhythmic, me- 
lodic, or harmonic characteristics in a composi- 
tion which constitute its individuality, as varia- 
tions in rhythm, melodic decorations or figures, 
intentional discords, etc. The use of the term is 
traceable to the early use of colored lines to assist in the 
interpretation of the neunue, and also of colored notes and 
other signs in the mensural-music. (b) The timbre or 
auality of a musical tone. See timbre Absorp- 
on or color. See absorption. Accidental colors, 
acoustic color, adjective color. See the adjectives. 
Application colors. Same as spirit colors. Artists' 
colors, the finer and more expensive colors used by artists, 
in distinction from the coarser colors used by house- 
painters. Body color. See body-color. Brass-color. 
See brassl. Broken colors. See broken. Cake-color. 
See water-color, below. Coal-tar colors. See coal-tar. 
Color in pleading*, in law, a false statement pleaded 
by the defendant, from which the plaintiff seems to have 
1110 
an apparent but not a sufficient right, the object being to 
lay a foundation for matter in avoidance of it. Color Of 
office, the semblance of right by which a sheritf or other 
officer assumes to do that which the law does not really 
authorize. It implies an illegal act. - Color of title, 
.semblance or appearance of title, irrespective of its va- 
lidity. According to the stricter authorities, to give color 
of title the instrument should be good in form, identify 
the property, profess to convey it, and be duly executed ; 
and in such case possession under it may ripen into per- 
fect title, irrespective of the void or voidable character 
of the instrument. Confluent colors. See conjluent. 
Distemper colors, colors ground in water to a creamy 
consistency, to which is added a sizing of glue or white 
of egg to make them adhere to the surface to which they 
are applied. They are generally used for decorating 
plastered walls or ceilings. Also called fresco colors. 
Dry color, any dry pigment suitable for grinding in a 
medium to be used in painting. Ecclesiastical colors, 
liturgical colors, colors for vestments, and for hangings 
of the altar, sanctuary, pulpit, etc., varying according to 
the festival, the season, or the kind of office. According 
to the Roman sequence of colors, white, as the color of 
purity and joy, is used on the festivals of Christ, the Vir- 
gin, angels, and saints not martyrs, and at marriages ; red, 
as the color of blood, on the feasts of the Holy Cross and 
of martyrs, and also at Whitsuntide with reference to the 
tongues of fire (Acts ii. 3) ; violet or purple, as the peniten- 
tial color, in Advent, Septuagesima, etc., Lent, and on vi- 
gils, etc. ; green, the prevailing color of natural vegetation, 
and symbolic of hope, on days and during seasons not 
otherwise distinguished, especially from Trinity to Advent 
Sunday, both exclusive ; black, on Good Friday, at funerals, 
and at services for the departed. These colors are widely 
used in Anglican churches also, though less frequently for 
vestments than for hangings. Some Anglican churches 
have revived the old English or Sarum colors, namely, 
red as the ordinary Sunday color, as a penitential color 
on Ash Wednesday, (!ood Friday, Easter Even, and Whit- 
sun Even, and also on the same days as in the Roman use ; 
white, throughout Eastertide ; yellow, for feasts of con- 
fessors ; blue, indifferently with green ; and brown or 
gray with violet, for penitential seasons. In the Greek 
Church vestments, etc., of various colors are used, but 
there is no fixed or habitual sequence as in the West, ex- 
cept that red is preferred for Lent. Fast colors, those 
colors which do not wash out or fade easily from exposure 
to the sun. 
The name of fast colours is given to those which resist 
the action of light, air, water, alcohol, dilute acids and 
alkalis, and of weak hypochlorites and soap solution. 
Calvert, Dyeing and Calico-printing, p. 19. 
Fresco colors. Same as distemper colors (which see, 
above). Fundamental color, a color which, under the 
Illumination of average diffused daylight, produces as 
nearly as possible a fundamental color-sensation. Also 
called primary color. See color-sensation. General col- 
or, in painting, the effect in combination of all the hues 
or tones appearing in a picture. Gradation of color, 
the continuous variation of the color-sensations excited by 
the different parts of a surface. Graining-colors, colors 
ground in linseed-oil with the addition of a small amount 
of wax to prevent their spreading when manipulated with 
a graining-comb to imitate the graining of various woods. 
Ground color. See ground! , a. High color, (a) A 
hue which excites intensely chromatic color-sensations. (6) 
Redness of the complexion. Intense color, a high color. 
Japan colors, colors ground in a medium called japan. 
They are used by coach- and car-painters, and are often 
called coach-colors. They are thinned with turpentine 
before using, and dry dead or fiat, that is. without any 
gloss. They are afterward varnished, which brings out the 
brilliancy of color. Law of color, the principle that 
every color of the spectrum can be matched by a mixture 
of some two out of three colors, namely, the scarlet vermil- 
ion of the spectrum at wave-length 0.639 (Angstrom), the 
pure blue of the spectrum at wave-length 0.464, and a 
green a little more intense than the pure green of the spec- 
trum at wave-length 0.524, except only that the green of 
the spectrum contains a little of both red and blue. 
Liturgical colors. See ecclesiastical colors, above. 
Local color, (a) In painting, the hue, or combination of 
hues, special to any object or part. (6) A general system 
of light and shadow upon which the modeling and tint- 
ing of details is executed ; chiaroscuro. 
Local colour in all the black and white arts means the 
translation of all hues into their relative degrees of gray. 
Hamcrton, Graphic Arts, p. 424. 
(-) Distinct characteristics, peculiarities, or individual- 
ity : said of a place, a country, a period, etc. 
One [tower] inserted in the body of the wall [of Ches- 
ter] and the other connected with it by a short, crumbling 
ridge of masonry, they contribute to a positive jumble of 
local color. 11. James, Jr., Trans. Sketches, p. 11. 
Hence (d) Analogous characteristics in a literary compo- 
sition. Low color, a color of little chromatic intensity. 
Mixture of colors, a color which throws upon the ret- 
ina a sum of lights similar in quantity, and proportionate 
in intensity, to the lights which would be projected by the 
constituent colors, the sum of the proportions being unity. 
Thus, if A, B, and C are the lights thrown upon the retina 
by three colors, and another color projects a light which is 
the sum of i A, jj B, and J C, then the latter is said to be a 
mixture of A, B, and C. Moist color. See water-color, 
below. Neutral color, a color which matches a mixture 
of white and black. Oil-COlor, a pigment of any kind 
ground in linseed- or poppy-oil. The former oil is gener- 
ally used for house-paints, the latter for artists' colors. 
Persons of color, specifically, persons having any pro- 
portion, however small, of African blood. 
Marriages between white men and women of colour are 
by no means rare. M'Culloch, Geog. Diet., Brazil. 
Positive colors, those colors which are unbroken by such 
accidents as affect neutral colors. Primary colors, (a) 
The seven colors into which Newton arbitrarily divided 
the spectrum. See def. 1, above. (6) The colors red, yel- 
low, and blue, from the mixture of which it was errone- 
ously supposed (from the facts of the mechanical mixture 
of pigments) all other colors could be produced, (c) The 
red, green, and violet light of the spectrum, from the 
colorability 
mixture of which all other colors can be produced. Also 
called fundamental colors. Pulp-colors, the name given 
by paper-stainers and calico-printers to colors ground in 
water. Pure color. () A color produced by homoge- 
neous light, (b) Any very brilliant or decided color, (c) 
In paintiny, color in which each hue is lighted or shaded 
only with a modification of itself, and not with a totally 
different hue. Thus, a brick wall painted in pure color will 
be red in both sunlight and shadow, as distinguished from 
a representation of such a wall as red in the sun, and blue, 
gray, or brown in the shade. Secondary colors. See 
xfcondari/. Spirit colors, certain colors obtained in cal- 
ico-printing, so called from the use of "spirits," the tech- 
nical name for the acid solutions of tin, in applying thf 
colors. Also called application colon. Subjective COl- 
ors. Same as accidental colors (which see, under acciden- 
tal). Substantive color. See adjective color, under 
adjective. To cast COlort, to lose color; change color. 
He cast al his colour and bi-com pale. 
William of Paler ne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 881. 
To change color, to turn red or pale : said of a person. 
Canst thou quake and change thy colour} 
Shak., Rich. III., Hi. 5. 
To fear no colorst, to fear no enemy : probably at first 
a military expression. B. Jonson; Stcift. 
I can tell thee where that saying was born, of, I fear no 
colours. ... In the wars. Shak., T. N., 1. 6. 
To match colors, to find colors which produce the same 
color-sensations. To Show one's colors, to declare one's 
opinions, sentiments, or intentions. Tube-colors, oil- 
colors put up in collapsible tin tubes, for the use of artists. 
Varnish colors, a class of colors used in glass-painting. 
They are soft, and form when applied u kind uf glaze upon 
the surface of the glass. Vitriflable colors, the oxids of 
various metals ground to a paste in a medium, usually oil 
of turpentine, and used for decorating pottery. The colors 
are developed by being fused Into the glaze at a high tem- 
perature in a kiln. Water-color, (a) A pigment ground 
in water containing a small amount of glue, glycerin, 
honey, or molasses, to cause it to bind and adhere to the 
surface on which it is applied. When pressed into molds 
and thoroughly dried, they are called cake-colors; but when 
sold in the form of a stiff paste they are called moist col- 
ors, (o) A. painting done in such pigments. Young- 
Helmnoltz theory Of color [named for Thomas young 
(1773-1829), who, however, did not prove the theory, and 
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand Helmholtz, born 1821], the 
doctrine that there are three kinds of nerves in the retina, 
giving respectively sensations of red, green, and violet, and 
that all other color-sensations are due to the simultaneous 
excitation of two kinds of nerves or of all three. = Syn. 
1. Shade, Tint, etc. See huel. 10. Plea, pretext, sem- 
blance, disguise. 
color, colour (kul'pr), i). [Early mod. E. also 
colloure, coloure; <'ME. colouren, coloren, < OF. 
colorer, F. colorcr = Sp. Pg. colorar (Pg. also 
corar) = It. colorare, color (cf. F. colorier, OF. 
colorir (> D. kleuren = G. colorieren = Dan. 
kolorere = Sw. kolorera) = Sp. Pg. colorear and 
colorir = It. colorire, color, paint, adorn), < L. 
colorare, give a color to, color, < color, color: 
seecofor, n. Cf. colorwh.] I. trans. 1. To give 
or apply a color to; change or alter the color 
or hue of ; dye ; tinge ; paint ; stain. 
There was no link to colour Peter's hat [that is, with 
smoke]. Shak., T. of the S., iv. 1. 
2. Figuratively (o) To cause to appear differ- 
ent from the reality; give a specious appear- 
ance to ; set in a fair light ; palliate ; excuse ; 
make plausible. 
He colours the falsehood of .F.nra- by an express com- 
mand of Jupiter to forsake the queen. 
Dryden, Ded. of ^Eneid. 
We have scarce heard of an insurrection that was not 
coloured with grievances of the highest kind. 
Addison, Freeholder. 
(6) To give a special character or distinguish- 
ing quality to, analogous to color in a material 
object. 
Most [writings] display the individual peculiarities of 
their authors, and are colored by personal feelings. 
Whipple, Ess. and Rev., I. 233. 
Coloring matter, any element from which the color of 
natural objects is derived, or any substance employed in 
the arts for the purpose of imparting color. Coloring 
tool, in seal-engraving, a tool used for cutting color-lines 
upon the field of work. It has two cutting edges ; one, 
placed in a line already cut, serves as a gage to fix the 
distance of the next line. To color (a stranger's) goods' , 
to allow him to enter goods at the custom-house in one's 
name, to avoid the alien's duty : said of a freeman. 
The said marchants shal not allow any man which is 
not of their company, nor shal not colour his goods and 
marchandize vnder their company. 
Ilakluyt's Voyages, I. 174. 
II. in trans. To become red in the face; 
flush ; blush : as, he colored from bashfulness : 
of ten- folio wed by up. 
" If you believed it impossible to be true," said Eliza- 
beth, colouring with astonishment and disdain, "I won- 
der you took the trouble of coming so far." 
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, p. 301. 
colorability, colourability (kuHor-a-bil'i-ti), 
n. [< colorable, colourable : eee-bility.] 1. The 
power of absorbing or receiving color. 
The colmtrability of the lichens is not a property of these 
plants as a whole. 
W. Crookes, Dyeing and Calico-priutiug, p. 376. 
2. Speciousness ; plausibility. 
