colored

Pluralcoloreds

1. 1
   added hueverb

   Simple past tense and past participle of color.

   He colored his hair a darker shade before the interview.

   The old map had been colored by hand.

   Note

   One spelling covers the whole range of the verb. She colored can mean she blushed, a well-colored meerschaum has been darkened by smoking, and a judgment colored by fear has been affected without being changed outright. That last passive use, colored by, is the bridge to the "biased" adjective: the participle hardens into a description.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a specified color or coloring, usually named by a word in front, as in brightly or differently colored.

   The catalog lists the chairs in several differently colored finishes.

   Each ward used variously colored wristbands to identify patients.

   Similarhued, tinted, shaded

   Note

   Much of this sense's work happens in compounds, where a shade or tone is fixed to the front: a dark-colored rug, light-brown colored deer. Hyphenation varies. A simple pair like dark-colored usually takes a hyphen, but a longer string such as light-brown colored is often left open. Before a noun, a hyphen throughout (light-brown-colored) keeps the reader from stumbling.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having a color, rather than being colorless.

   The window used colored panes instead of clear ones.

   The liquid in the left flask was colored, while the right stayed transparent.

   Similartinted, stained, dyed

   Oppositecolorless, clear, transparent

4. 4
   brightadjective

   Having prominent or bright colors; colorful.

   The festival float was gaudily colored and impossible to miss.

   Tropical reefs are vividly colored compared with the gray waters above.

   Similarcolorful, bright, vivid, painted

   Oppositedrab, dull, colorless

5. 5
   biasedadjective

   Influenced or biased, often subtly, by a particular attitude or feeling.

   Like a tinted lens that quietly shifts the way everything appears.

   The review was colored by the critic's dislike of the director.

   Their account of the meeting seemed colored by wounded pride.

   Similarinfluenced, biased, slanted, distorted, prejudiced

   Oppositeimpartial, objective, unbiased

   Note

   Its natural partner is view. A colored view runs from a 1948 congressional hearing on motion-picture disputes, through Glenn D. Everett's 1949 account of a one-newspaper town, to Bernard H. Boar's 2001 book on strategic planning. Very often comes in front, grading the bias. That makes this a quieter word than biased, suited to perspectives shaped by circumstance rather than to deliberate slant.

6. 6
   laundrynouncountable

   An item of clothing that has color, separated from whites for washing.

   He pulled one dark colored out before starting the white load.

   The coloreds went into a separate basket from the whites.

   Oppositewhite

   Note

   Laundry sorts the wash into whites and coloreds, and this noun is simply the plain adjective turned into a category. It is nearly always heard in the plural, coloreds, often next to whites, darks or lights on a care label or a sorting basket. The singular is rare and sounds odd, so a single item is better called a colored shirt or a colored item.

7. 7
   mixed raceadjectivedialectalBotswanaNamibiaSouth AfricaZimbabwe

   Belonging to a multiracial ethnic group of Southern Africa, with ancestry from more than one of the region's racial groups: black, white, and Asian.

   The neighborhood was largely colored, with roots stretching back generations.

   Colored congregations often kept their own churches and traditions.

   Note

   In Southern Africa the word names one particular community, not anyone who is not white, and that is the line to keep clear from the American "nonwhite" meaning. It is used in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, sometimes with a capital C, and under apartheid it served as an official classification. Most of the community speaks Afrikaans. Eurafrican is a synonym.

8. 8
   mixed-race personnounSouth Africacountable

   A person of Southern Africa with ancestry from more than one of the region's racial groups: black, white, and Asian.

   Her father, a colored, spoke both Afrikaans and English at home.

   Coloreds make up a large share of the population in Cape Town.

   Note

   The person-noun built on the Southern African community name, used as a count noun: a Colored, the Coloreds of the Cape. Eurafrican is a synonym, but it is a more descriptive term. A colored person is the commoner phrasing, and many writers prefer it to the bare noun.

9. 9
   segregatedadjectivehistorical

   Designated for use by nonwhite people under racial segregation in the United States or apartheid in South Africa.

   A worn sign still marked the colored waiting room on the platform.

   New Orleans is a very dull town. It’s against the law to go to the colored section. The bars are insufferably dreary.

   1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road

   Note

   A word from the signs of segregation, and it stands before a noun: a colored drinking fountain, a colored hospital, the colored section. In Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957), going to the colored section of New Orleans is still against the law. Today it belongs to historical writing, where it names what the system labeled rather than describing anyone.

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