variegated

comparative more variegated · superlative most variegated

1. Streaked, spotted, or otherwise marked with a variety of color.

   There I beheld the painter of the year diſplaying his variegated fancies on his leafy tablets, and, with the pencil of power dipped in the æthereal bow, writing the leſſons of wiſdom divine on the fair forehead of blooming Nature.

   1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iii

   1 more example

   From the heights a view was now and then obtained between the lofty pine and fir-trees of the valley below with its smiling fields and variegated woods of birch and alder trees, between which the river wound like a narrow silvery streak.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 279

   Synonyms: patterned, distinct, marked, patterned, figured

2. broadlyVery colorful.

   Synonyms: motley, multicolored, polychromatic, aurora-colored (US) / aurora-coloured, colorful (US) / colourful, colorific, discolored [⇒ thesaurus] (US, obsolete) / discoloured

3. broadlyVaried, heterogeneous, motley

   The challenge to heterosexuality requires that we claim, not deny, our queer character. It's sexual, it's variegated, sometimetimes its messy and, for better or worse, it's ours.

   1996 September, “No Double Standard”, in Gay Community News, page 4

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of variegate