Variegated

ppl. a. [f. prec. or L. variegāt-us, pa. pple. of variegāre.]

  1.  Marked with patches or spots of different colors; varied in color; of diverse or various colors; many-colored, vari-colored; spec. in Bot. (see VARIEGATION 1).

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Norwich (1662), 274. The skil in making Tulips … variegated, with stripes of divers colours.

1688.  Boyle, Final Causes, ii. 46. In sawing pieces of variegated marbles.

1718.  Pope, Odyss., XV. 145. She said, and gave the veil;… The prince the variegated present took.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., II. viii. 218. The glittering of the sun on their variegated plumage.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xviii. (1787), II. 78. A variegated flowing robe of silk.

1812.  Examiner, 24 Aug., 544/2. Some of his tradesmen … illuminated their houses with variegated lamps.

1852.  Beck’s Florist, 212. This magnificent new variegated plant is a native of Java.

1876.  Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 565. They are sometimes smooth, sometimes ribbed, upon the surface, and often variegated in colour.

  Comb.  1763.  Mills, Pract. Husb., III. 238. However, neither the yellow, nor the variegated, flowered lucerne is ever so strong as that with purple flowers.

1883.  Harper’s Mag., April, 727/1. Near it is the striking foliage of the variegated-leaved althea.

  b.  In the specific names of animals, birds, etc.

  A large number of similar uses occur in the works of Latham and Shaw.

1783.  Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, II. 1. 99. Variegated chatterer. Ibid., 181. Variegated Bunting (Emberisa principalis).

1792.  Shaw, Mus. Leverianum, 38. The Variegated Baboon. Ibid. (1801), Gen. Zool., II. 17. Variegated Cavy. Ibid., 123. Variegated Marmot. Ibid. (1802), III. I. 235. Variegated Lizard. Ibid. (1804), V. II. 439. Variegated Sun-fish.

1814.  Leach, Zool. Misc., I. 117. Variegated Coucal.

1840.  [see SOLE sb.² 2].

1871.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., I. 95. The Douc, or Variegated Monkey,… is perhaps the most gaily clad of all this group. Ibid. (1881), V. 73. The Variegated Sole (Solea variegata) is rarely more than eight or nine inches long, and closely resembles the Common Sole.

1888.  Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., s.v., Variegated spider-monkey, Ateles variegatus, or bartlettii.

  c.  In the names of plants or shrubs.

1852.  G. W. Johnson, Cottage Gard. Dict., 904/2. Variegated Laurel, Aucuba.

1855.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 260. Variegated Simethis. Ibid. (1859), Brit. Grasses, 298. Variegated Rough Horse-tail.

1874.  T. Hardy, Far fr. Mad. Crowd, II. x. 100. Boughs of laurustinus, and variegated box,… and boy’s love.

  d.  Min. (See quots.)

1836.  T. Thomson, Min., Geol., etc., I. 622. Variegated Copper Ore. Buntkupfererz—liver-coloured copper ore.

1862.  Dana, Min., 294. Erubescite.—Variegated Copper Pyrites.

1888.  Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., s.v., Variegated copper-ore, the same as Bornite. Ibid., Variegated-sandstone, a name formerly given to the New Red Sandstone.

  2.  Marked or characterized by variety; of a varied character, form or nature; diverse.

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, II. vii. 3. Therein was abundantly seen Gods πολυποίκιλος σοφία, his variegated wisdom.

1687.  N. N., Old Popery, 18. God Almighty … accepts the variegated Services of his different Creatures.

1762.  Falconer, Shipwr., Proem 20. Ye ever-tuneful Nine! whose sacred lyres,… in softer notes, express The variegated pang of deep distress.

1775.  Adair, Amer. Ind., 110. The dancers prance it away, with wild and quick sliding steps, and variegated postures of body.

1798.  Washington, Lett., Writ. 1893, XIV. 57. The variegated and important duties of the Aids of a Commander-in-Chief … require experienced Officers.

1817.  Chalmers, Astron. Disc., iv. (1852), 105. The minute and variegated details of the way in which this wondrous enconomy is extended.

1897.  Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 387. I go along the same variegated path I came by yesterday.

  b.  Composed of persons of various characters or kinds; heterogeneous; motley. rare.

1807.  Wordsw., White Doe, I. 162. A variegated band Of middle aged, and old, and young.

1863.  Kinglake, Crimea (1877), I. xix. 381. The variegated group which composed Lord Aberdeen’s ministry.

  3.  Varied or diversified (in color, appearance, etc.) with something.

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 379. The whole World, variegated with Plants, Animals and Stars, being his [sc. God’s] Temple.

1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 156, ¶ 10. No plays have oftener filled the eye with tears … than those which are variegated with interludes of mirth.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 265. The colour is generally an olive brown, variegated with one that is more dusky.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 180. The tract of country … is happily variegated with plains and mountains, hills and vallies.

1806.  Gazetteer Scot. (ed. 2), 433. The surface is variegated with hills and eminences, streams of water, and fertile plains.

1845.  Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), VI. 104. Their colour is a bright-golden scarlet; the limb variegated with red and yellow.

1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 287. Corolla blue variegated with white inside.

  4.  Characterized by variegation (of color).

1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., I. 7. Who does not admire the variegated diversity of colours in her [the butterfly’s] expansed wings?

1835.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. xvi. (ed. 4), III. 271. The surface … was of a variegated colour.

1877.  Black, Green Past., xlii. A rich wilderness of flowers, of the most bountiful verdure and variegated colours.

  5.  Produced by variation; variant.

1872.  Liddon, Elem. Relig., iv. 143. For all that disease is disease, and not a variegated form of health.

  Hence Variegatedness.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., 215. Variegatedness, motly, pyed, particoloured, divers colours.