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colourish. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
colourish, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
colourish in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
colourish you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Noun
colourish (uncountable)
- (obsolete) A substance used in gilding to brighten the finish of the gilded object.
1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, or, Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, London: Edw. Blount, page 234:Muffola, a kind of colour that goldsmithes call colourish.
- 1671, Robert Boyle, Some Considerations Touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy, Oxford: Ric. Davis, Volume 2, Essay I, Section V, p. 27,
- For having by this means overlaid it evenly with Gold, they can easily with fire force away the Mercury; and, with a liquor impregnated with Nitre, Verdigrease, Sal Armoniack, and other Saline Bodies, which they call a Colourish, restore its lustre to the remaining Gold, which they after make bright by polishing.
Verb
colourish (third-person singular simple present colourishes, present participle colourishing, simple past and past participle colourished)
- (obsolete, transitive) To add colour to, to brighten with colour.
1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 2nd edition, London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, published 1650, Preface:Would truth dispense, we could be content, with Plato, that knowledge were but Remembrance; that Intellectuall acquisition were but Reminiscentiall evocation, and new impressions but the colourishing of old stamps which stood pale in the soul before.