olive drab
Americannoun
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olive drabs
plural
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a deep olive color.
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woolen cloth of this color, used especially for U.S. Army uniforms.
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a military uniform made from this cloth.
noun
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a dull but fairly strong greyish-olive colour
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( as adjective )
an olive-drab jacket
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OD. cloth or clothes in this colour, esp the uniform of the US Army
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of olive drab
First recorded in 1895–1900
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One manufacturer’s idea of khaki or olive drab, for example, might not match another’s—a serious problem when thousands of yards of uniform fabric had to be dyed the same shade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
But the armed men with severe expressions who appeared in the doorway were wearing military uniforms different from the olive drab fatigues she had seen on Israeli soldiers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2023
Wearing the olive drab that has marked his transformation into a wartime leader, he looked visibly exhausted yet animated by a drive to persevere.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 9, 2022
He was immediately given special status as a “prodigy athlete” that allowed him to put aside the IDF olive drab in favor of Maccabi blue and yellow and now Wizards red and blue.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2020
He forced his memory to move beyond the hand to the arm: it was clad in olive drab, army cloth.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
