"nail one's colours to the mast" meaning in English

{
  "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": [
        "participle",
        "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",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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",
          "support"
        ],
        [
          "dispute",
          "dispute"
        ]
      ],
      "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"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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": [
        "participle",
        "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"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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"
}