Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The property of colors by which they can be perceived as ranging from red through yellow, green, and blue, as determined by the dominant wavelength of the light.
  • noun A particular gradation of color; a shade or tint.
  • noun Color.
  • noun Appearance; aspect.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Form; appearance; guise.
  • noun Color; specifically and technically, distinctive quality of color in an object or on a surface; the respect in which red, yellow, green, blue, etc., differ one from another; that in which colors of equal luminosity and chroma may differ.
  • noun In painting, a compound color in which one of the primaries predominates, as the various grays, which are composed of the three primary colors in unequal proportion.
  • noun A cry; a shout; loud shouting of many voices, as in pursuit of game or of a fugitive: now used only in the phrase hue and cry.
  • noun In English practice, a written proclamation issued on the escape of a felon from prison, requiring officers and all other people to assist in retaking him. A general outcry or alarm; a great stir or clamor made about any matter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Color or shade of color; tint; dye.
  • noun (Painting) A predominant shade in a composition of primary colors; a primary color modified by combination with others.
  • noun A shouting or vociferation.
  • noun (Law) a loud outcry with which felons were anciently pursued, and which all who heard it were obliged to take up, joining in the pursuit till the malefactor was taken; in later usage, a written proclamation issued on the escape of a felon from prison, requiring all persons to aid in retaking him.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A shout or cry.
  • noun obsolete Form; appearance; guise.
  • noun A color, or shade of color, blee; tint; dye.
  • noun The characteristic related to the light frequency that appears in the color, for instance red, yellow, green, cyan, blue or magenta.
  • noun figuratively A character; aspect, blee.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb take on color or become colored
  • verb suffuse with color
  • noun the quality of a color as determined by its dominant wavelength

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, color, form, from Old English hīw, hēo.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French hu, a hunting cry

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hewe, from Old English hīew, hīw ("appearance, form, species, kind; apparition; hue, color; beauty; figure of speech"), from Proto-Germanic *hiwjan (“hue, form, shape, appearance; mildew”), from Proto-Indo-European *kew-, *ḱew- (“skin, colour of the skin”) or Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“grey, dark shade”). Cognate with Swedish hy ("complexion, skin"), Norwegian hy ("fluff, mold, skin"), Icelandic hégóma ("vanity"), Gothic  (hiwi, "form, show, appearance"). Compare also Sanskrit  (chavī, "cuticle, skin, hide; beauty, splendour"); Irish céo ("fog"), Tocharian B ... (kwele, "black, dark grey"), Lithuanian šývas ("light grey"), Albanian thinjë ("grey"), Sanskrit ... (śyāvá, "brown").

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Examples

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  • "Dear Enemy, may the lord hate you and all your kind, may you turn orange in hue, and may your head fall off at an awkward moment." -- The Black Adder

    February 20, 2007

  • Interesting notes on the obsolete word "hue"Click HERE

    See also hue and cry

    February 10, 2008