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colours

[kuhl-er]

Origin

noun, adjective, verb (used with object), verb (used without object) Chiefly British.

color.

Related forms

trans·col·our, adjective

Usage note
See -or¹.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Colours is always a great word to know.

So is callithumpian. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

colours (ˈkʌləz)

—*pl n*
1.	a. the flag that indicates nationality
	b. military the ceremony of hoisting or lowering the colours
2.	a pair of silk flags borne by a military unit, esp British, comprising the Queen's Colour showing the unit's crest, and the Regimental Colour showing the crest and battle honours
3.	true nature or character (esp in the phrase show one's colours)
4.	a distinguishing badge or flag, as of an academic institution
5.	(Brit) sport a badge or other symbol denoting membership of a team, esp at a school or college
6.	informal a distinguishing embroidered patch denoting membership of a motorcycle gang
7.	nail one's colours to the mast
	a. to refuse to admit defeat
	b. to declare openly one's opinions or allegiances

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

colour

See color.

EXPAND

colours

British spelling of colors (q.v.); also see -or.

COLLAPSE

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"Our Sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our Senses. It fills the Mind with the largest Variety of Ideas, converses with its Objects at the greatest Distance, and continues the longest in Action without being tired or satiated with its proper Enjoyments. The Sense of Feeling can indeed give us a Notion of Extension, Shape, and all other Ideas that enter at the Eye, except Colours; but at the same time it is very much straightened and confined in its Operations, to the Number, Bulk, and Distance of its particular Objects. Our Sight seems designed to supply all these Defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive kind of Touch, that spreads its self over an infinite Multitude of Bodies, comprehends the largest Figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote Parts of the Universe."

-Joseph Addison

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