Word.ws English Dictionary

sails under false colors

sails under false colors is the third-person singular simple present indicative of sail under false colors.

Meaning of sail under false colors

Verb

sail under false colors (third-person singular simple present sails under false colors, present participle sailing under false colors, simple past and past participle sailed under false colors)

  1. (idiomatic, obsolete) To deceive or intentionally mystify.
    • They were all not exactly sailing under false colours, but deceiving themselves as to their motives—and one another, to a lesser degree, by their actions.1869, Annie Thomas, “Miss Vargrave Nearly Lands a Fish”, in False Colours. […], volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 251

Questions about sails under false colors

What is sails under false colors the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Sails under false colors is the third-person singular simple present indicative of sail under false colors.

Words near sails under false colors in the dictionary

  1. sailrooms
  2. sails
  3. sails close to the wind
  4. sails the Red Sea
  5. sails through
  6. sails under false colors
  7. sailship
  8. sailships
  9. sailsman
  10. sailsmen
  11. sailwear

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sails under false colors (page history and authors); sail under false colors (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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