Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having color that will not run or fade with washing or wear.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having colors that have been dyed or applied to the material in a way that will prevent them from being washed out, running, or fading.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having color that is resistant to fading or running

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

color +‎ -fast

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Examples

Comments

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  • I am an author and recently wrote a headline for my blogpost about how the ancients used mordants to make fabrics colorfast. I used colorfast as a verb and got nailed for it up on Facebook. My headline read:

    How did the ancients colorfast their textiles? I was informed by a reader that colorfast should only be used as an adjective. I think the process by which something is made colorfast should be colorfast used as a verb!

    October 15, 2015

  • How did the ancients make their textiles colorfast?

    October 18, 2015

  • Because colorfast is not a recognised verb - you already got pinged on that - the alternatives are to either use a non-marked version like mine or put up with the umbrage.

    October 18, 2015