DISCOLOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does discolor mean? 

• DISCOLOR (verb)
  The verb DISCOLOR has 3 senses:

1. lose color or turn colorless

2. cause to lose or change color

3. change color, often in an undesired manner

  Familiarity information: DISCOLOR used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISCOLOR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they discolor    ... he / she / it discolors   
Past simple: discolored   
Past participle: discolored   
-ing form: discoloring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lose color or turn colorless

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The painting discolored

Hypernyms (to "discolor" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discolor"):

wash out (lose color in the process of being washed)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Antonym:

color (add color to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to lose or change color

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The detergent discolored my shirts

Hypernyms (to "discolor" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Cause:

color; colour; discolor; discolour (change color, often in an undesired manner)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discolor"):

bleach; bleach out; decolor; decolorise; decolorize; decolour; decolourise; decolourize; discolorise; discolorize; discolourise (remove color from)

sallow (cause to become sallow)

wash out (drain off the color in the course of laundering)

infuscate (darken with a brownish tinge, as of insect wings)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

discoloration (the act of changing the natural color of something by making it duller or dingier or unnatural or faded)

discoloration (a soiled or discolored appearance)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Change color, often in an undesired manner

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

color; colour; discolor; discolour

Context example:

The shirts discolored

Hypernyms (to "discolor" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discolor"):

blanch; blench; pale (turn pale, as if in fear)

blue (turn blue)

green (turn or become green)

tone (change the color or tone of)

yellow (turn yellow)

gray; grey (turn grey)

purple (become purple)

redden (turn red or redder)

dye (color with dye)

silver (turn silver)

turn (change color)

black; blacken; melanise; melanize (make or become black)

white; whiten (turn white)

burn; sunburn (get a sunburn by overexposure to the sun)

bronze; tan (get a tan, from wind or sun)

blush; crimson; flush; redden (turn red, as if in embarrassment or shame)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

discoloration (the act of changing the natural color of something by making it duller or dingier or unnatural or faded)

discoloration (a soiled or discolored appearance)

 Context examples 

The teeth are weak, discolored, and translucent.

(Dentinogenesis Imperfecta, NCI Thesaurus)

The decay of a tooth, in which it becomes softened, discolored, and/or porous.

(Caries, NCI Thesaurus)

A disorder characterized by the decay of a tooth, in which it becomes softened, discolored and/or porous.

(Caries, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

NASA laboratory experiments suggest the dark material coating some geological features of Jupiter's moon Europa is likely sea salt from a subsurface ocean, discolored by exposure to radiation.

(NASA Research Reveals Europa's Mystery Dark Material Could Be Sea Salt, NASA)

He turned and stared at Martin, and Martin, staring back, noted the puffed and discolored face, handsome and weak, and knew that he had been making a night of it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The pool itself, muddy and discolored from the sluice boxes, effectually hid what it contained, and it contained John Thornton; for Buck followed his trace into the water, from which no trace led away.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Strange it was to these gallant and sparkling cavaliers of Spain to look upon this handful of men upon the hill, the thin lines of bowmen, the knots of knights and men-at-arms with armor rusted and discolored from long service, and to learn that these were indeed the soldiers whose fame and prowess had been the camp-fire talk of every army in Christendom.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Such had he imagined the angels, and such he had tried to paint them in the Beaulieu missals; but here there was something human, were it only in the battered hawk and discolored dress, which sent a tingle and thrill through his nerves such as no dream of radiant and stainless spirit had ever yet been able to conjure up.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Hard face, battered head piece, dinted brigandine, with faded red lion of St. George ramping on a discolored ground, all proclaimed as plainly as words that he was indeed from the land of war.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)