"nail one's colours to the mast" meaning in All languages combined

See nail one's colours to the mast on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nail one's colours to the mast.wav Forms: nails one's colours to the mast [present, singular, third-person], nailing one's colours to the mast [participle, present], nailed one's colours to the mast [participle, past], nailed one's colours to the mast [past]
Etymology: From the naval military practice of displaying one's colours (signal flags or insignia) from the mast of a ship during battle to show loyalty. To surrender, one would strike one's colours, i.e. take down one's flag. If a ship nailed its colours to the mast, it would fight to the death and not surrender. Head templates: {{en-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. Synonyms: pin one's colours to the mast Related terms: raise the flag and see who salutes, show one's true colors, stand up and be counted Translations (to clearly show one's support): liputtaa ... puolesta (Finnish), Farbe bekennen (German), hartnäckig aushalten (German), nicht kapitulieren (German), obnosić się ze swoimi poglądami [imperfective] (Polish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From the naval military practice of displaying one's colours (signal flags or insignia) from the mast of a ship during battle to show loyalty. To surrender, one would strike one's colours, i.e. take down one's flag. If a ship nailed its colours to the mast, it would fight to the death and not surrender.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "nails one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
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        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "nailing one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "nailed one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nailed one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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      "name": "en-verb"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1808, Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto I, Introduction, Stanza 10:",
          "text": "Stood for his country’s glory fast,\nAnd nail’d her colours to the mast!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 June 9, Steven Poole, “Behave by Robert Sapolsky review – why do we do what we do?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "He eventually nails his colours to the mast of strict determinism: every human action is inescapably caused by preceding events in the world, including events in the brain.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "id": "en-nail_one's_colours_to_the_mast-en-verb-BMfN66F-",
      "links": [
        [
          "support",
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        [
          "dispute",
          "dispute"
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      "related": [
        {
          "word": "raise the flag and see who salutes"
        },
        {
          "word": "show one's true colors"
        },
        {
          "word": "stand up and be counted"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "pin one's colours to the mast"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
          "word": "liputtaa ... puolesta"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
          "word": "Farbe bekennen"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
          "word": "hartnäckig aushalten"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
          "word": "nicht kapitulieren"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "obnosić się ze swoimi poglądami"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "nail one's colours to the mast"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From the naval military practice of displaying one's colours (signal flags or insignia) from the mast of a ship during battle to show loyalty. To surrender, one would strike one's colours, i.e. take down one's flag. If a ship nailed its colours to the mast, it would fight to the death and not surrender.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "nails one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nailing one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
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        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nailed one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "nailed one's colours to the mast",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "raise the flag and see who salutes"
    },
    {
      "word": "show one's true colors"
    },
    {
      "word": "stand up and be counted"
    }
  ],
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
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        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1808, Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto I, Introduction, Stanza 10:",
          "text": "Stood for his country’s glory fast,\nAnd nail’d her colours to the mast!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 June 9, Steven Poole, “Behave by Robert Sapolsky review – why do we do what we do?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "He eventually nails his colours to the mast of strict determinism: every human action is inescapably caused by preceding events in the world, including events in the brain.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "support",
          "support"
        ],
        [
          "dispute",
          "dispute"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nail one's colours to the mast.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-nail_one%27s_colours_to_the_mast.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-nail_one%27s_colours_to_the_mast.wav.mp3",
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    }
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "pin one's colours to the mast"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
      "word": "liputtaa ... puolesta"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
      "word": "Farbe bekennen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
      "word": "hartnäckig aushalten"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
      "word": "nicht kapitulieren"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to clearly show one's support",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "obnosić się ze swoimi poglądami"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nail one's colours to the mast"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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