Forms: see the sb. [ME. coloure(n, etc. a. OF. couloure-r, colore-r:—L. colōrāre, f. color COLOUR.]
1. trans. To give color to; to imbue, charge or mark with color or hue; to paint, stain, dye. Const. also with over.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 456. Þe rauen … watz colored as þe cole.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 443. As the fressh rede rose newe Ayene the somer sonne coloured ys.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3052. Corvyn by crafte, colourd with honde.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 47. Color hit with safroune.
1527. R. Thorne, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 254. The coastes … I have coloured with yellow.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel (1664), G iij. The Painters are to colour over their windows thrice.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 13. A skin Not coloured like his own.
1805. Wordsw., Waggoner, I. 92. Coloured all by his own hand.
b. absol.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 163. Such things as colour blew.
1662. Merret, trans. Neri’s Art of Glass, xcv. Sometimes the powders colour more and sometimes less.
c. fig.
1637. R. Humfrey, trans. St. Ambrose, I. 104. The use … of ancients … doth colour and beautifie the manners of young men.
1888. Alma Tadema, in Pall Mall Gaz., 9 April, 3/1. As the sun colours flowers, so art colours life.
† 2. To embellish, set off in rhetorical colors.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 2201. This batail destuted is, In the French … Therefore Y haue, hit to colour, Borowed of the Latyn autour.
3. To represent in fair colors (what is of the opposite character); to give a specious aspect to; to gloss, cloak, disguise, excuse; to render specious or plausible. Const. out, over.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 455. Eche man sotileth a sleight synne forto hyde, And coloureth it for a kunnynge and a clene lyuynge.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7852. Þai colowrne hom coyntly with a cause febill.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 29. Whych thyng, though it be colowryd per Jus Regale, yet it is Tyrannye.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. John, 99 b. They shall colour out their wickednesse with pretense of godlynesse.
1574. trans. Marlorat’s Apocalips, 36. They coloured theyr cursed filthye vncleannesse wyth the name of Nicolas the Deacon.
1606. G. W[oodcocke], trans. Hist. Ivstine, G g 4 b. The which Salonina [a harlot] he colord vnder marriage.
1741. Middleton, Cicero (1742), I. V. 367. Howsoever this may color, it cannot justify Cato’s conduct.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp., VII. xlix. 206. Armed bands who had coloured their brigandage under the name of patriotism.
b. To exhibit in a false light; to put an unfair or untrue construction upon; to misrepresent.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 139. They speken pleine after the lawe But he the wordes of his sawe Coloureth in an other wey.
1529. More, Heresyes, IV. Wks. 267/2. This is your verye doctrine, how so euer ye colour it.
a. 1592. Greene & Lodge, Looking Glasse, Wks. (1861), 121/1. It was your device that, to colour the statute.
1786. J. Jay, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1835), IV. 135. The facts are inaccurately stated, and improperly colored.
1860. Dickens, Lett. (1880), II. 112. The evidence has been suppressed and coloured.
† 4. To lend one’s name to; represent or deal with as one’s own. To color strangers’ goods: to enter a foreign merchant’s goods at the customhouse under a freeman’s name, for the purpose of evading additional duties. Obs.
a. 1502. in Arnolde’s Chron. (1811), 88. The Cowpers of this cite haue vsed and dayly vse to colour straungers goodis.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 114. If a Factor or Merchant, doe colour the goods of Merchant Strangers in paying but English Customes … he runneth into a Præmunire.
1625. Bacon, Ess. Usury (Arb.), 546. Then they will be hardly able to Colour other Mens Moneyes in the Country.
a. 1655. Bp. G. Goodman, Crt. James I., I. 351. Their [ambassadors’] servants did colour and transport other mens goods.
1726. in Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), s.v.
5. To imbue with its own tone or character.
[1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 340. Wher cunning must worke, the whole body must be coloured.]
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, VIII. iii. Those emotions … coloured his whole soul.
1838–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., IV. IV. vii. 320. His predominating good sense colours the whole.
1882. Serjt. Ballantine, Exper., xii. 123. In all these cases it is the motive that colours the act.
† 6. intr. To color with: to harmonize with.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Rollo, IV. i. Your counsels colour not with reason of state.
1648. J. Goodwin, Right & Might, 32. Nor doth the Act of the Army … colour, or shadow (in the least) with the act of the King.
7. To take on color, to change color, to become colored; spec. said of grapes or other fruit, in acquiring the color of ripeness.
1667. H. Stubbe, in Phil. Trans., II. 497. The Sea coloureth from green to darkish, and so to blue.
1882. Garden, 3 June, 389/1. A marvel to me that … Grapes colour so well as they do. Ibid. A prime necessity as regards colouring grapes.
Mod. This meerschaum won’t colour.
8. spec. To turn red in the face, to blush. Also Color up.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
1755. Johnson, To colour, to blush. A low word, only used in conversation.
1787. Mirror, 80. The poor woman coloured.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Gd. Fr. Governess (1832), 182. I used to colour every minute, as Miss Matilda does.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, xxxiv. Her ladyship coloured up with rage.
1876. Holland, Sev. Oaks, xii. 162. He colored as if he had been detected in a crime.
b. trans. nonce-use.
1824. Miss Ferrier, Inher., I. xiv. 92 [She] only coloured a reply. [Cf. to smile, nod, blush a reply.]
