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Color definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COLOR, n.
1. In physics, a property inherent in light, which, by a difference in the rays and the laws of refraction, or some other cause, gives to bodies particular appearances to the eye. The principal colors are red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo and violet. White is not properly a color; as a white body reflects the rays of light without separating them. Black bodies, on the contrary, absorb all the rays, or nearly all, and therefore black is no distinct color. But in common discourse, white and black are denominated colors; and all the colors admit of many shades of difference.
2. Appearance of a body to the eye, or a quality of sensation, caused by the rays of light; hue; dye; as the color of gold, or of indigo.
3. A red color; the freshness or appearance of blood in the face.
My cheeks no longer did their color boast.
4. Appearance to the mind; as, prejudice puts a false color upon objects.
5. Superficial cover; palliation; that which serves to give an appearance of right; as, their sin admitted no color or excuse.
6. External appearance; false show; pretense; guise.
Under the color of commending him,
I have access my own love to prefer.
7. Kind; species; character; complexion.
Boys and women are, for the most part, cattle of this color.
8. That which is used for coloring; paint; as red lead, ocher, orpiment, cinnabar, or vermilion, etc.
9. Colors, with a plural termination, in the military art, a flag, ensign or standard, borne in an army or fleet. [See Flag.]
10. In law, color in pleading is when the defendant in assize or trespass, gives to the plaintiff a color or appearance of title, by stating his title specially; thus removing the cause from the jury to the court.
Water-colors are such as are used in painting with gum-water or size, without being mixed with oil.
COLOR, v.t.
1. To change or alter the external appearance of a body or substance; to dye; to tinge; to paint; to stain; as, to color cloth. Generally, to color is to change from white to some other color.
2. To give a specious appearance; to set in a fair light; to palliate; to excuse.
He colors the falsehood of Aeneas by an express command of Jupiter to forsake the queen.
3. To make plausible; to exaggerate in representation.
To color a strangers good, is when a freeman allows a foreigner to enter goods at the custom house in his name, to avoid the aliens duty.
COLOR, v.i. To blush.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: having or capable of producing colors; "color film"; "he rented a color television"; "marvelous color illustrations" [syn: color, colour] [ant: black and white, black-and-white] n
1: a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect; "a white color is made up of many different wavelengths of light" [syn: color, colour, coloring, colouring] [ant: achromaticity, achromatism, colorlessness, colourlessness]
2: interest and variety and intensity; "the Puritan Period was lacking in color"; "the characters were delineated with exceptional vividness" [syn: color, colour, vividness]
3: the timbre of a musical sound; "the recording fails to capture the true color of the original music" [syn: color, colour, coloration, colouration]
4: a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks) [syn: color, colour, people of color, people of colour]
5: an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading; "he hoped his claims would have a semblance of authenticity"; "he tried to give his falsehood the gloss of moral sanction"; "the situation soon took on a different color" [syn: semblance, gloss, color, colour]
6: any material used for its color; "she used a different color for the trim" [syn: coloring material, colouring material, color, colour]
7: (physics) the characteristic of quarks that determines their role in the strong interaction; "each flavor of quarks comes in three colors" [syn: color, colour]
8: the appearance of objects (or light sources) described in terms of a person's perception of their hue and lightness (or brightness) and saturation [syn: color, colour] v
1: add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" [syn: color, colorize, colorise, colourise, colourize, colour, color in, colour in] [ant: discolor]
2: affect as in thought or feeling; "My personal feelings color my judgment in this case"; "The sadness tinged his life" [syn: tinge, color, colour, distort]
3: modify or bias; "His political ideas color his lectures" [syn: color, colour]
4: decorate with colors; "color the walls with paint in warm tones" [syn: color, colour, emblazon]
5: give a deceptive explanation or excuse for; "color a lie" [syn: color, colour, gloss]
6: change color, often in an undesired manner; "The shirts discolored" [syn: discolor, discolour, colour, color]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: Middle English colour, from Anglo-French, from Latin color; akin to Latin celare to conceal — more at hell Date: 13th century 1. a. a phenomenon of light (as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects b. (1) the aspect of the appearance of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources <the changing color of the sky>; also a specific combination of hue, saturation, and lightness or brightness <comes in six colors> (2) a color other than and as contrasted with black, white, or gray 2. a. an outward often deceptive show ; appearance <his story has the color of truth> b. a legal claim to or appearance of a right, authority, or office c. a pretense offered as justification ; pretext <she could have drawn from the Versailles treaty the color of legality for any action she chose — Yale Review> d. an appearance of authenticity ; plausibility <lending color to this notion> 3. complexion tint: a. the tint characteristic of good health b. blush 4. a. vividness or variety of effects of language b. local color 5. a. an identifying badge, pennant, or flag — usually used in plural <a ship sailing under Swedish colors> b. colored clothing distinguishing one as a member of a particular group or representative of a particular person or thing — usually used in plural <a jockey wearing the colors of the stable> 6. a. plural position as to a question or course of action ; stand <the USSR changed neither its colors nor its stripes during all of this — Norman Mailer> b. character, nature — usually used in plural <showed himself in his true colors> 7. a. the use or combination of colors b. two or more hues employed in a medium of presentation <movies in color> 8. plural a. a naval or nautical salute to a flag being hoisted or lowered b. armed forces 9. vitality, interest <the play had a good deal of color to it> 10. something used to give color ; pigment 11. the quality of timbre in music <the color and richness of the cello> 12. skin pigmentation especially other than white characteristic of race <a person of color> 13. a small particle of gold in a gold miner's pan after washing 14. analysis of game action or strategy, statistics and background information on participants, and often anecdotes provided by a sportscaster to give variety and interest to the broadcast of a game or contest <a color commentator> 15. a hypothetical property of quarks that differentiates each type into three forms having a distinct role in binding quarks together II. verb Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. a. to give color to b. to change the color of (as by dyeing, staining, or painting) 2. to change as if by dyeing or painting: as a. misrepresent, distort b. gloss, excuse <color a lie> c. influence <the lives of most of us have been colored by politics — Christine Weston> 3. characterize, label <call it progress; color it inevitable with shades of job security — C. E. Price> intransitive verb to take on color; specifically blush • colorer noun

Britannica Concise

Aspect of any object that may be described in terms of hue, brightness, and saturation. It is associated with the visible wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, which stimulate the sensor cells of the eye. Red light has the longest wavelengths, while blue has the shortest, with other colors such as orange, yellow, and green between. Hue refers to dominant wavelengths. Brightness refers to the intensity or degree of shading. Saturation pertains to purity, or the amount of white light mixed with a hue. The colors red, green, and blue, known as primary colors, can be combined in varying proportions to produce all other colors. Primary colors combined in equal proportions produce secondary colors. Two colors that combine to form white light are said to be complementary.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

etc. US var. of COLOUR etc.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Color Col"or, n. [Written also colour.] [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) 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 averred 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 regularly subdivided, 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Color Col"or, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Colored; p. pr. & vb. n. Coloring.] [F. colorer.] 1. To change or alter the hue or tint of, by dyeing, staining, painting, etc.; to dye; to tinge; to paint; 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 [AE]neas 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Color Col"or, v. i. To acquire color; to turn red, especially in the face; to blush.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see colour

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Hue, tint, tinge, shade. 2. Pigment, paint. 3. Redness, ruddiness, rosiness, freshness of complexion. 4. Complexion, hue of skin. 5. Plea, pretext, pretence, excuse, guise, disguise, semblance, appearance, make-shift, false show. II. v. a. 1. Tinge, dye, paint, stain, tint. 2. Disguise, varnish, gloss over, make plausible. 3. Distort, pervert, garble, misrepresent. III. v. n. Redden, blush, flush, show color.