painted

painted, ppl. a.
  (ˈpeɪntɪd)
  [f. paint v.¹ + -ed¹.]
  1. Depicted in colours, represented in a picture; executed in colours as a picture, likeness, or design.

a 1300 Cursor M. 23215 Painted fire..þat apon a wagh war wroght. 1552 Huloet, Paynted ymages in silinges and tables, anaglypha. 1601 Sir W. Cornwallis Ess. xlvii, What is [this] but to feed the auditory with dishes by the Painter, not the Cooke?—when examined..it proues a painted shoulder of mutton. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. ii. viii, As idle as a painted Ship Upon a painted Ocean.

  2. a. Coated or brushed over with colour or paint; ornamented with designs or pictures executed in colour; having the face artificially coloured.

c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 1341 Resydyuacion gooth Toward Macrocosme, with a peyntyd fase. 1526 Tindale Acts xxiii. 3 God shall smyte the thou payntyd wall. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. ix. 354 It carried vpon the head, a pointed myter of painted paper. 1769 Gray Install. Ode 8 Let painted Flatt'ry hide her serpent⁓train in flowers. 1784 Cook 3rd Voy. I. Introd. 8 When Great-Britain was first visited by the Phœnicians, the inhabitants were painted Savages. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1873) II. iv. 110 The traditions annealed in the purple burning of the painted window.

  b. fig. Coloured so as to look what it is not; unreal, artificial; feigned, disguised, pretended.

1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 114 With pryue speche and peynted wordes. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 271 Prelatis of þe world & peyntid foolis of religion. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 10947 Ffor al thy peynted wordys swete, My staff in soth I wyl nat lete. 1621 H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords (Camden) 46 Sir Ed. Villiers his paynted friend, and Mompesson an obdurate enemy. 1728 Sheridan Persius v. (1739) 67 Nor are you to be deceived by painted Expressions. 1852 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xix. (1866) 326 The life of men was a painted life.

  3. fig. Adorned with bright or varied colouring, highly coloured, variegated.

c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fables v. (Parl. Beasts) xv, The peyntit pantheir, and the vnicorne. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 63 The pecockes paynted fethers. 1714 L. Eusden Speech of Pluto in Poet. Misc. 140 And painted Meads smile with unbidden Flow'rs. 1844 Ld. Brougham A. Lunel III. vi. 189 The cattle, and painted birds, stretched their weary limbs..and soothed their hearts.

  4. In specific collocations: often used to form the specific name of an animal or plant of conspicuous colouring, as painted duck, painted goose, painted honey-eater, painted mallow, painted ray, etc.; painted bat, an East Indian bat (Kerivoula picta) with brilliant orange colouring; painted beauty, a large North American butterfly, Vanessa virginiana, with black and white markings on its brownish-yellow wings; painted bunting, name for two birds: (a) the Nonpareil, Cyanospiza ciris; (b) = painted longspur; Painted Chamber (in contemporary AF. chaumbre peynte), a chamber in the old Palace of Westminster, in which in early times Parliament often assembled (first recorded in 1339) and in which the Sovereign sometimes met the two houses: its walls were painted with a series of battle scenes (see Stubbs Const. Hist. (1875) xx. §748; Brayley and Britton Westminster 401); painted clam, an edible porcelainlike bivalve (Callista gigantea) of the southern United States; † painted cloth: see cloth 5; painted cup, † a name for (a) the plant Bartsia viscosa; (b) any species of the N. American genus Castilleia, having bracts more brilliant and showy than the flowers; painted finch, ‘one of several species of Passerina or Cyanospiza, the nonpareil, the indigo-bird, or the lazuli-finch: so called from their brilliant and varied colors’; painted grass, the striped variety of Phalaris arundinacea, Lady's laces; painted ground: see quot.; painted hyena = hyena-dog (Lycaon pictus); painted lady, (a) a species of butterfly (Vanessa or Pyrameis cardui) of orange-red colour, spotted with black and white; (b) a party-coloured variety of Pink or Dianthus; (c) also painted lady pea, a variegated species of Lathyrus, esp. of the Sweet Pea; (d) a name used in South Africa for several local species of gladiolus, distinguished by marks of a different colour on some of their petals; painted longspur, a North American bird, Centrophanes pictus (Coues Key N. Amer. Birds (1884) 358); painted mischief (slang), playing cards; painted quail, a name applied to several birds allied to the quail, esp. to those of the genus Excalfactoria; painted snipe: see quot. 1896; painted terrapin, tortoise, turtle, a small American freshwater turtle of the genus Chrysemys, distinguished by red and yellow rings on its greenish-brown shell; painted top-shell, a littoral gastropod mollusc, Calliostoma zizyphinum (formerly Trochus or Gibbula magus), which has a vividly coloured conical shell.

1899 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Oct. 631 The *Painted Beauty and the Cosmopolitan resemble each other strongly. 1972 Swan & Papp Common Insects N. Amer. 237 Painted Beauty: Vanessa virginiensis... Also called American painted lady and Virginia lady.

1893 Newton Dict. Birds 459 The..gaudy *Painted Bunting or Nonpareil.

[1339 Rolls of Parlt. I. 106/1 En la Chaumbre de Peynte. 1350–1 Ibid. 225/1 En la Chaumbre Blaunche pres de la Chaumbre Peynte.] c 1543 in Parker Dom. Archit. III. 79 The parlement chambre & *paynted chambre. 1654 (title) Speeches of His Highnesse the Lord Protector to the Parliament in the Painted Chamber. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xviii. 129 He [Hen. VI] had been brought into the painted chamber to preside at the opening of parliament.

1488 in Ripon Ch. Acts (Surtees) 286, j *pantid cloth cum pictura S. Antonii. 1528 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 253 A paynted clothe w{supt}{suph} Christe and ij thefes upon it, iiijd. 1542–1654 [see cloth n. 5].

1787 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 2) II. 632 Bartsia, *Painted-cup. 1866 Treas. Bot., Painted cup, an American name for Castilleja.

1730 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 431 Fringilla tricolor, the *painted Finch..; its Head and Neck are blue; its Back green, and the Belly red.

1597 Gerarde Herbal i. xix. §2. 25 Usually of our English women..called Ladies Laces, or *Painted grasse. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Painted Grass.

1881 Standard 3 Oct. 2/1 Designs which remind the ancient spectator of that portion of the old Fleet Prison once known as ‘the *painted ground’, because of the vivid illustrations that distinguished it.

1868 Wood Homes without H. xii. 220 Called the *Painted Honey-Eater on account of the variety of its colouring. Its scientific name is Entomophila picta.

1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Painted lady, a term for a particular sort of carnations, the flowers of which have all their petals red or purple on the out side, and white underneath. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 321 Painted Lady Pease, Lathyrus. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Painted lady, the name of a beautifully variegated pea, the Lathyrus odoratus of Linnæus. 1829 Glover's Hist. Derby i. 174 Papilio Pictus, Painted Lady Butterfly. 1890 Daily News 14 Oct. 5/1 The butterflies of autumn, admiral and painted lady, sail from bush to bush. 1906 B. Stoneman Plants S. Afr. xix. 198 Gladiolus... Painted Ladies and ‘Kalkoentjes’ belong here. Eighty-one species of this large genus are found in South Africa. 1927 [see aandblom]. 1972 Stand. Encycl. S. Afr. V. 201/2 The Cape species [of gladiolus] are known as pypies, afrikaners, painted ladies, bells. Ibid. 202/1 The painted ladies (e.g. G. carneus) have white or pink trumpet-shaped flowers with markings on the lower perianth lobes.

1825 Greenhouse Comp. II. 25 Malva miniata, *painted Mallow, a shrub introduced from South America in 1798.

1879 Daily News 8 Mar. (Farmer), There are plenty of ways of gambling..without recourse to the ‘*painted mischief’.

1895 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. IV. 416 The common *painted quail (Excalfactoria chinensis) inhabits the Indo-Chinese countries, especially the lower hills.

1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 433 The Small-eyed Ray, or *Painted Ray. Raia microcellata.

1811 Sporting Mag. 63 Called the *painted snipe. 1896 Newton Dict. Birds 886 The so-called Painted Snipes, forming the genus Rostratula, or Rhynchæa... Three species are now admitted, natives respectively of South America, Africa and southern Asia and Australia.

1839 Storer & Peabody Rep. Fishes, Reptiles & Birds Mass. 208 Chrysemys picta... The *painted Tortoise. 1842 J. E. DeKay Zool. N.Y. iii. 12 The Painted Tortoise..is unquestionably the handsomest of our fresh-water species. 1876 D. S. Jordan Man. Vertebrates Northern U.S. 163 C[hrysemys] picta (Herm.) Ag. Painted Turtle. Mud Turtle... One of the most common turtles. 1904 W. T. Hornaday Amer. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 327/1 The Painted Terrapin, hitherto called at random the Painted ‘Turtle’ and Pond-‘Tortoise’, is perhaps the most widely distributed species..in the United States. 1949 Life 11 Apr. 81 A painted turtle cranes its neck in the spring sun. 1973 M. R. Crowell Greener Pastures 200 We..pick up a painted turtle intent on crossing the road.

1865 J. G. Wood Common Shells of Sea-shore xi. 100 The *Painted Top-shell..is rather boldly ridged. Ibid. 101 The name of Painted Top is given to it on account of the magnificent hues of the animal. 1901 E. Step Shell Life xi. 205 The Painted Top-shell..is a very distinct species, the shape of the three largest of the 8 whorls giving the solid shell a decidedly turreted appearance. 1972 S. P. Dance Shells 18 (caption) The Painted Top Shell is a gaily coloured species and has long tentacles.

Oxford English Dictionary