a. [f. COLOUR, + -Y1.]
1. colloq. Characterized by or abounding in color.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxviii. (D.). Roundly charging you with being … too flowery and coloury.
1884. Chesh. Gloss., Coloury, roan or spotted. Said of cows that are not self-coloured. In auctioneers’ posters one frequently sees a stock of cows described as ‘good, coloury cows.’
2. Commercial. Having a color characteristic of good quality. Applied to hops; also to a particular class of coffee beans of a bright bluish tint.
1880. Daily News, 28 Oct., 3/8. Coffee…. Good middling to fine middling colory, 89s. to 95s.
1883. Standard, 18 May, 6/5. [Coffee] Grayish, at 61s. 6d., to 63s. 6d.; coloury, at 71s.
1887. Daily News, 25 Jan., 2/5. (Hops) The demand for useful coloury samples of the new English growth.
1890. A Coffee-broker writes: An inferior Coffee would very rarely be ‘coloury,’ but even a good Coffee need not necessarily be so. The Coffee most usually described as ‘coloury’ is that from Guatemala. But Java Coffee, of equal value, is usually a light yellow and very rarely described as ‘coloury.’
