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local colour

British  

noun

  1. the characteristic features or atmosphere of a place or time

"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

Example Sentences

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Are they just a local colour morph, or something more interesting?

From Scientific American • Mar. 5, 2014

Or is it what adds to the local colour of the Giro?

From The Guardian • May 19, 2013

Tagalog words intermittently scattered around for local colour, exotically italicised.

From The Guardian • Jun. 26, 2010

The 45-minute claim was put in late and was a "bit of local colour" the secret service would allow to be used.

From BBC • Jan. 20, 2010

If you want local colour, call at the Vicarage—or take William as a specimen.

From Imprudence by Young, F.E. Mills

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.