I. ˈkələ(r)d adjective
Etymology: Middle English coloured, from past participle of colouren to color — more at color
1. : marked by color : having or showing usually chromatic color
white and colored lights
advertisements on colored paper
sometimes : having a color other than the accustomed or expected
colored glass
a green and a colored leaf
2.
a. : feigned , pretended
a colored ally
b. : glossed over : made to appear less extreme : palliated
his colored crimes
c. : adorned , embellished
the colored verse of Claudian — Arthur Symons
: made colorful
the pictures, colored and racy, which Captain Nichols' vivid account offered — W.S.Maugham
: exaggerated, slanted, biased
colored political news — F.L.Mott
the prosecutor's well- colored evidence — Arthur Morrison
d. : oriented , aligned
politically colored labor unions
3. sometimes capitalized
a. : of some other race than the white ; often : Negro or having some proportion of Negro blood
b. : of, for, or relating to colored persons
a teacher in colored schools
4. sometimes capitalized
a. : of mixed race
the colored people, as contrasted with the Negroes of St. Thomas
b. Africa : of or relating to the Cape Colored
II. noun
( -s )
Usage: sometimes capitalized
1. : colored people
education of the colored
2. : a colored person
a school for coloreds