English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From vari- +‎ color +‎ -ed.

Adjective

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varicolored

  1. Having a variety of colors; variegated or motley.
    • 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique[1], Book 2, p, 128:
      [] the habit of the greater part of them is only a wreath of Callico tyed about their heads; their mid-parts are circled with a Zone of vari-colored plad, and have Sandalls upon their feet, elsewhere being naked []
    • 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night [], Shammar edition, volume I, [London]: [] Burton Club [], →OCLC, page 62:
      The Fisherman looked into the water and was much astonished to see therein vari-coloured fishes, white and red, blue and yellow; however he cast his net and, hauling it in, saw that he had netted four fishes, one of each colour.
    • 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 1, in Their Eyes Were Watching God[2], University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 15:
      The varicolored cloud of dust that the sun had stirred up in the sky was settling by slow degrees.
    • 2009, Zadie Smith, “Speaking in Tongues”, in Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, New York: Penguin:
      Watching Jesse Jackson in tears in Grant Park, pressed up against the varicolored American public, it seemed like he, at least, had received the answer he needed: only a many-voiced man could have spoken to that many people.
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Translations

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