Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having elements of great variety or incongruity; heterogeneous.
- adjective Having many colors; variegated; parti-colored.
- noun The parti-colored attire of a court jester.
- noun A heterogeneous, often incongruous mixture of elements.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A habit made of pieces of cloth of different colors in glaring contrast: the usual dress of the jester or professional fool.
- noun A jester; a fool.
- noun Any mixture, as of colors.
- Party-colored; variegated in color; consisting of different colors: as, a motley coat.
- Composed of or exhibiting a combination of discordant elements; heterogeneous in composition; diversified.
- To variegate; give different colors to.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A combination of distinct colors; esp., the party-colored cloth, or clothing, worn by the professional fool.
- noun obsolete Hence, a jester, a fool.
- noun a fool.
- adjective Variegated in color; consisting of different colors; dappled; party-colored.
- adjective Wearing motley or party-colored clothing. See
Motley , n., 1. - adjective Composed of different or various parts; heterogeneously made or mixed up; discordantly composite.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Comprising greatly
varied elements , to the point ofincongruity ;heterogeneous - adjective Having many
colours ;variegated - noun A
jester 'smulticoloured clothes - noun An
incongruous mixture
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds
- adjective having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly
- noun a collection containing a variety of sorts of things
- noun a garment made of motley (especially a court jester's costume)
- verb make something more diverse and varied
- noun a multicolored woolen fabric woven of mixed threads in 14th to 17th century England
- verb make motley; color with different colors
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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That Hazlitt learned to express his thoughts “in motley imagery or quaint allusion”, that his understanding “ever found a language to express itself, I owe to Coleridge”, he later wrote.
March « 2009 « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2009
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That Hazlitt learned to express his thoughts “in motley imagery or quaint allusion”, that his understanding “ever found a language to express itself, I owe to Coleridge”, he later wrote.
william hazlitt | the man of letters « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2009
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First, Chinese males became effeminate fops, who dressed in motley silk costumes and sported ridiculously long fingernails.
The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture: 1776-1876 2005
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International motley is not limited to any continent, nor did it originate in any theory or concept of dress.
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The people in motley processions surge toward the center of attraction in the courtyard of the Golden Tiled Temple, where in a pavillion erected as a temporary shrine stands the great butter image they have come to worship.
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On another occasion he entitled his motley force the Sans
The Winning of the West, Volume 4 Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807 Theodore Roosevelt 1888
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I use the word motley in the sense of incongruous or nonsensical, as evidenced by the protest signs they were carrying.
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Who would prefer that Coleridge be Schelling?), but his career as a writer in motley genres and sundry places was enabled by his vacillation, his apostasies, the intractable irritability of his text.
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I think, recalling a motley bunch of candidates in past U.S. elections, including former stars of the big screen and even muscle-bound athletes.
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I think, recalling a motley bunch of candidates in past U.S. elections, including former stars of the big screen and even muscle-bound athletes.
French Word-A-Day: 2007
mollusque commented on the word motley
A varicolored woolen fabric of mixed threads.
December 23, 2007
bilby commented on the word motley
"Clothing is no longer a single cult which all must practise in the same way, only well or badly. One may now dress quixotically or sentimentally or satirically or gorgeously, at will. It is no longer necessary to wait for a costume party to get out the thirties dressing-gown embroidered with hollyhocks or that ragged Tunisian wedding dress. Everyone wears motley."
- 'Hippies in Asia', Germaine Greer in Sunday Times, 1972.
April 13, 2008