false colours

pl n

a flag to which one is not entitled, flown esp in order to deceive: the ship was sailing under false colours
an assumed or misleading name or guise: to trade under false colours

Words Nearby false colours

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use false colours in a sentence

I could only have gone as a professed wizard or prophet—under false colours, in fact.
Hair-Breadth Escapes | H.C. Adams
She feels she has been sailing under false colours and desires to make some reparation.
The Lion and The Mouse | Charles Klein
He was sailing under such false colours as her brother's benefactor.
The Burglar and the Blizzard | Alice Duer Miller
He was there under false colours, being a spy of the other camp, but something in him found itself at home among the patriots.
The Path of the King | John Buchan
I said all this just naturally, not wishing him to think that I feared Edmond Czerny nor was willing to hoist false colours.
The House Under the Sea | Sir Max Pemberton

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