Meanings
- etcgovernmentHaving, in alternating sections, the principal metal and principal colour of the associated arms.
CREST – Upon a torce of the colours, a swan's neck and breast, with wings displayed, proper.
1801, William Betham, The Baronetage of England, Or the History of the English Baronets, and Such Baronets of Scotland, as are of English Families: With Genealogical Tables, and Engravings of Their Armorial Bearings, page 3063 more examples
Crests - 1. on a wreath of the colours, a cock proper, charged with a crescent gules (Corry); 2. on a wreath of the colours, a garland between two laurel branches vert (Lowry)[…]
1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 1025The shield is ensigned by a helmet to dexter with mantlings or and gules, and surmounted by the crest; out of a torse of the colours a lion rampant issuant or.
1915, Rowland Winn St. Oswald (2d Baron of), Maurice Walter Brockwell, Catalogue of the Pictures and Other Works of Art in the Collection of Lord St. Oswald at Nostell Priory, page 290Unless other tinctures are specified, the torse, like the mantling, is of the colours, i.e. of the principal metal and the principal colour.
1983, Charles Boutell, Boutell's Heraldry, Frederick Warne Publishers, page 155
Cite this entry
of the colours. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/of%20the%20colours
“of the colours.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/of%20the%20colours. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “of the colours,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/of%20the%20colours.
Source: of the colours on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.