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motley

[mot-lee]

Example Sentences Origin

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adjective

exhibiting great diversity of elements; heterogeneous: a motley crowd.

being of different colors combined; parti-colored: a motley flower border.

wearing a parti-colored garment: a motley fool.

noun

a combination of different colors.

a parti-colored effect.

the parti-colored garment of a jester.

a heterogeneous assemblage.

a medley.

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Motley is a TOEFL word you need to know.

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one of the compositions of a composer, usually numbered according to the order of publication

being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, early in the history of the world or of humankind

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Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English; see mote¹, -ly

Synonyms
1. varied, mixed, incongruous.

Example Sentences

And he isn't prim; his fabric collage suggesting a meadow is a motley swell.

Fancy words and meetings but no results because the other side is such a motley crew.

The byte is catapulted into this motley and, with luck, finds the appropriate server.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

John Lo·throp

[loh-thruhp] , 1814–77, U.S. historian and diplomat.

Link To motley

Collins

World English Dictionary

motley (ˈmɒtlɪ)

—*adj*
1.	made up of elements of varying type, quality, etc
2.	multicoloured

—n
3.	a motley collection or mixture
4.	the particoloured attire of a jester
5.	obsolete a jester

[C14: perhaps from mot speck, mote¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

motley

late 14c., from Anglo-Fr. motteley, probably from O.E. mot "speck" (see mote). "Diversified in color," especially of a fool's dress. Hence, allusively, "a fool" (1600).

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"Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery."

-Charles Dickens

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motley

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Mot·ley