Word.ws English Dictionary

nailed one's colours to the mast

nailed one's colours to the mast is the simple past and past participle 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

Questions about nailed one's colours to the mast

What is nailed one's colours to the mast the simple past and past participle of?
Nailed one's colours to the mast is the simple past and past participle of nail one's colours to the mast.

Words near nailed one's colours to the mast in the dictionary

  1. nailcutters
  2. nailed
  3. nailed down
  4. nailed it
  5. nailed Jell-O to a wall
  6. nailed one's colours to the mast
  7. nailed someone to the wall
  8. nailed the hammer on the head
  9. nailed to the counter
  10. nailer
  11. naileress

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nailed one's colours 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “nailed one's colours to the mast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nailed_one%27s_colours_to_the_mast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.