under false colors
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She is, to be strictly honest, traveling under false colors; G.I.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Confederate would at once accuse him of sailing under false colors, and trying to pass himself off for one of Price's soldiers when he was in reality a Lincolnite.
From Rodney The Partisan by Harry Castlemon
"You see I'm not trying to sail under false colors."
From The Bachelors A Novel by William Dana Orcutt
She doesn't like to sail under false colors and so insult old Dame Nature, whose kindnesses and benefits are so well meant and freely offered.
From The Woman Beautiful or, The Art of Beauty Culture by Helen Follett Stevans
We were half-terrified by the old fellow's angry, stern manner, and did not know but we had at last fallen into the hands of a rebel cruiser under false colors.
From Capturing a Locomotive A History of Secrect Service in the Late War. by William Pittenger
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.
