COLOURING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does colouring mean? 

• COLOURING (noun)
  The noun COLOURING has 3 senses:

1. a digestible substance used to give color to food

2. a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

3. the act or process of changing the color of something

  Familiarity information: COLOURING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLOURING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A digestible substance used to give color to food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

coloring; colouring; food color; food coloring; food colour; food colouring

Context example:

food color made from vegetable dyes

Hypernyms ("colouring" is a kind of...):

food product; foodstuff (a substance that can be used or prepared for use as food)

Derivation:

colour (add color to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

color; coloring; colour; colouring

Context example:

a white color is made up of many different wavelengths of light

Hypernyms ("colouring" is a kind of...):

visual property (an attribute of vision)

Attribute:

colored; colorful; coloured (having color or a certain color; sometimes used in combination)

uncolored; uncoloured (without color)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colouring"):

primary color; primary colour (any of three colors from which all others can be obtained by mixing)

heather; heather mixture (interwoven yarns of mixed colors producing muted greyish shades with flecks of color)

mottle (an irregular arrangement of patches of color)

shade; tincture; tint; tone (a quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color)

chromatic color; chromatic colour; spectral color; spectral colour (a color that has hue)

achromatic color; achromatic colour (a color lacking hue; white or grey or black)

coloration; colouration (appearance with regard to color)

complexion; skin color; skin colour (the coloring of a person's face)

dithered color; dithered colour; nonsolid color; nonsolid colour (a color produced by a pattern of differently colored dots that together simulate the desired color)

Derivation:

colour (add color to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act or process of changing the color of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

coloring; colouring

Hypernyms ("colouring" is a kind of...):

change of color (an act that changes the light that something reflects)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colouring"):

tinting (the act of adding a tinge of color)

hair coloring (the act of dyeing or tinting one's hair)

dyeing (the use of dye to change the color of something permanently)

Derivation:

colour (change color, often in an undesired manner)

 Context examples 

“When they are at a distance from all their family,” said Fanny, colouring for William's sake, “they can write long letters.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

You doubt me, cried Jane, slightly colouring; indeed, you have no reason.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I promised myself the pleasure of colouring it; and, as it was getting late then, I told her she must come and sit another day.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“She—excuse me—Miss D., you know,” said Traddles, colouring in his great delicacy, “lives in London, I believe?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Me!” cried Harriet, colouring, and astonished.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"Whom do you mean, ma'am?" said he, colouring a little.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She was a blonde, golden-haired, blue-eyed, and would no doubt have had the perfect complexion which goes with such colouring, had not her recent experience left her drawn and haggard.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Oh, dear!” cried Catherine, colouring.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

This even tint was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sand-break in the lower lands, and by many tall trees of the pine family, out-topping the others—some singly, some in clumps; but the general colouring was uniform and sad.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

"A well-executed picture," he said; "very soft, clear colouring; very graceful and correct drawing."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)