Word.ws English Dictionary

nails one's colours to the mast

nails one's colours to the mast is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 nails one's colours to the mast

What is nails one's colours to the mast the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Nails one's colours to the mast is the third-person singular simple present indicative of nail one's colours to the mast.

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

  1. nails
  2. nails down
  3. nails it
  4. nails Jell-O to a wall
  5. nails on a chalkboard
  6. nails one's colours to the mast
  7. nails someone to the wall
  8. nails the hammer on the head
  9. nails to the counter
  10. Nailsea
  11. Nailses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nails 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.

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