colouring

«colouring» in Mova's school dictionary: The colour or colours of something, especially of a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (colouring, colourings; US spelling coloring); verb form (present participle of colour: colouring)

meaning for a pupil

1) (noun) The colour or colours of something, especially of a person's skin, hair and eyes or an animal's fur or feathers: «a fox's red colouring». tree →

2) (noun) A substance added to food or drink to give it colour: «food colouring». tree →

3) (noun) The activity of filling in pictures with crayons, pencils or pens: «a colouring book». tree →

4) (verb form) Giving colour to something now: «I am colouring the sky blue». tree →

5) (noun, formal) The way something is presented that changes how people feel about it: «political colouring». tree →

sense in the lessons

In art and early school, colouring in is a common activity («colouring-in sheet», «stay inside the lines»). In science, animal colouring helps camouflage or warns predators (a wasp's warning colouring). In cooking, a few drops of food colouring change icing or play dough. Phrases: «colouring in», «colouring book», «colouring pencils», «food colouring», «natural colouring», «warning colouring».

examples

• My little sister loves her dinosaur colouring book. tree →
• We added green food colouring to the icing for St Patrick's Day. tree →
• The tiger's striped colouring helps it hide in long grass. tree →
• I am colouring the sea in two shades of blue. tree →
• She has her dad's colouring: red hair and freckles. tree →
• Some sweets use colouring made from beetroot. tree →
• Bright warning colouring tells birds that the frog is poisonous. tree →
• Finish your colouring in and then put the pencils away. tree →

note

British, Irish, Canadian, Australian and NZ spelling: colouring; American spelling: coloring. Countable for kinds of food dye (artificial colourings), uncountable for the activity. «Colouring in» means filling in an outline. Using «colouring» about a person usually means hair, skin and eyes, not just skin.

In the corpora

• Zoos add pink colouring to flamingos' food, or the birds slowly fade.
• Colouring helps only when it marks the tricky part of a word.
• Camouflage is colouring that helps an animal blend in with its surroundings.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «colouring» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.