ppl. a. [f. COLOUR v. or sb. + -ED.]
1. Having a color or colors; ‘diversified with variety of hues’ (J.).
Strictly, exclusive of black and white; also, exclusive of what is the normal or prevailing hue; thus in Bot. the colored parts of plants are those which are other than green. Often with the name of a particular color prefixed, as in blue-colo(u)red, etc. Colo(u)red vision: see VISION.
c. 1325. [see COLOUR v. 1].
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3757. Crispe herit was the kyng, colouret as gold.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 68. A coloured horse that hath moch white on hym.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., III. xix. 258. The coloured and the cleare glasses.
1611. Bible, Rev. xvii. 3. I saw a woman sit vpon a scarlet coloured beast.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., V. v. 313. A gentleman … chancing to come in a colour’d suit.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 168. Coloratum, coloured, expresses any colour in a leaf besides green.
1858. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 362. A large coloured map on excessively thick paper.
1872. E. Peacock, Mabel Heron, I. ix. 150. A coloured flannel shirt.
Mod. White or coloured shirts.
† b. fig. in Music. Figurate: see quot. Obs.
1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 78. The Counter-point is two-fold, Simple and Coloured…. The Coloured Counter-point is the constitution of a Song of diuers parts by diuers figures, and differing Concords.
c. fig. of literary style, etc.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 381. The most highly finished and vividly coloured picture of the English Court in the days when the English Court was gayest.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, II. 28. That fresh, full, highly-coloured style.
2. Of the complexion; esp. with defining words, as fresh-colo(u)red, ill-colo(u)red, well-colo(u)red, etc.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxii. 147. Riȝt faire folk and wele coloured.
c. 1540. Boorde, The boke for to Lerne, D j a. It doth … make a man loke euyll colored.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. III. xv. (1651), 12. They [Students] are most part lean, dry, ill-coloured.
1799. Med. Jrnl., II. 45. The child has appeared fresh coloured and easy.
b. spec. Having a skin other than ‘white’; esp. wholly or partly of the negro or ‘colored’ race.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., xxv. (1614), 49/1. Their … coloured countenances and curled haire.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy., I. III. iii. 12. The … Negro women, or the coloured women as they are called here.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xxi. ‘Au cachot!’ cried all the coloured girls.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. xviii. 308. Among the colored circles of New Orleans.
1880. Print. Trades Jrnl., XXXI. 5. Frederic Douglass, the celebrated coloured orator.
c. Of or belonging to the negro race.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life, v. 64. Our own coloured melodies.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 387. If state governments are opposed to colored suffrage.
† 3. Made to look well: a. Fair-seeming, specious, plausible.
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 79. No colourede excusacioun.
1576. Fleming, Panoplie Ep., 193. He spared no coloured pretence to allure the vulgar sort.
b. Glossed over, so as to appear right or good.
1555. in Froude, Hist. Eng., VI. 378. The kings coloured and too shamefully suffered adultery.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), 1 Thess. ii. 5. Nether dyd we any thing in coulored couetousnes.
c. Feigned, pretended, simulated.
1543. Grafton, Contn. Harding, 449. A false fained and coloured frende.
1574. trans. Marlorat’s Apocalips, 31. Contenting himselfe with coloured holinesse.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. vii. (Arb.), 166. To allow such manner of forraine and coulored talke to make the iudges affectioned.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. iv. (1660), 117. A Hypocrites coloured zeal.
