obliterative colouration

A form of obliterative coloration — The coloration of an animal that makes it blend into the background; camouflage.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounobliterative colouration (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of obliterative coloration.

    There is doubtless something in this theory of obliterative coloration.

    1909, Douglas Dewar, Frank Finn, The Making of Species, page 187
    2 more examples

    Where several species centre around an abundant successful species whose characteristics are: elusiveness, quickness of flight low to the ground; obliterative colouration; acute vision and wariness, "Dysleptic", (difficult of capture) was suggested by CARPENTER.

    1959, Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society - Volume 13, Issue 3, page 150

    In regard to their obliterative colouration, Whistler mentions another trait of the birds : " On the ground their colouration renders these Larks very inconspicuous, and an observer walking along is often astonished at the numbers which rise one by one around him and then fly away in a dense flock from the ground which was apparently empty of life."

    2005, K. N. Dave, Birds in Sanskrit Literature, page 111
Cite this entry
APA

obliterative colouration. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obliterative%20colouration

MLA

“obliterative colouration.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obliterative%20colouration. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “obliterative colouration,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obliterative%20colouration.

Source: obliterative colouration on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.