Word.ws English Dictionary

nail one's colors to the mast

nail one's colors to the mast is the alternative spelling of nail one's colours to the mast.

Meaning of nail one's colours to the mast

Verb

nail one's colours to the mast (third-person singular simple present nails one's colours to the mast, present participle nailing one's colours to the mast, simple past and past participle nailed one's colours to the mast)

  1. To clearly show one's support for a side or opinion in a dispute, often indicating an intention to defend that side to the end.
    • Stood for his country’s glory fast,
      And nail’d her colours to the mast!1808, Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto I, Introduction, Stanza 10

Forms of nail one's colors to the mast

third-person singular presentnails one's colors to the mast
present participlenailing one's colors to the mast
past participlenailed one's colors to the mast
pastnailed one's colors to the mast

Questions about nail one's colors to the mast

What is nail one's colors to the mast the alternative spelling of?
Nail one's colors to the mast is the alternative spelling of nail one's colours to the mast.

Words near nail one's colors to the mast in the dictionary

  1. nail kegs
  2. nail knot
  3. nail knots
  4. nail lacquer
  5. nail lacquers
  6. nail one's colors to the mast
  7. nail one's colours to the mast
  8. nail plate
  9. nail plates
  10. nail polish
  11. nail polish remover

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nail one's colors to the mast (page history and authors); nail one's colours to the mast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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