a. [f. as prec. + COLOURED ppl. a. Cf. the earlier VERSECOLOURED.] Changing or varying in color; iridescent; also, of various colors, variegated.
1721. Bailey, Versicoloured, changing Colour, of sundry and changeable Colours.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 421. Under these circumstances, the bile has at different times … been found … whitish, black, green, eruginous, and versicoloured.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. I. 467/1. If thou hadst enveloped him in thy versicoloured and cloud-like vestiary.
1873. M. Collins, Squire Silchester, III. xxii. 246. A rocket … drops its versicoloured shower.
fig. 1867. Visct. Strangford, Selection (1869), I. 135. Such views … on the subject of the versicoloured policy of France in the East.
Hence Versicolo(u)redness, ‘the being of changeable Colours’ (Bailey, 1727, vol. II.).
