false colors Idiom, Proverb
sail under false colors
pretend to be what one is not 冒充
I had so much wisdom as to sail un der false colors in this foolish jaunt of mine.我居然能在这次愚蠢的漫游中机智地更名改姓,真是聪明。
They are not real merchants.They are political spies sailing under false colors.他们不是真正的商人,他们是伪装的政治间谍。
sail under false colors|colors|false colors|sail
v. phr. 1. To sail a ship, often pirate, under the flag of another country.
The pirate ship flew the American flag until it got near, then raised the black flag. 1. To pretend to be what you are not; masquerade.
The garage hired Jones as a mechanic, but fired him when they found he was sailing under false colors. They found out that Smith was an escaped convict who had been sailing under false colors as a lawyer.
false colors
false colors Pretense, misrepresentation, or hypocrisy; deceptive statements or actions. For example,
She's sailing under false colors—she claims to be a Republican, but endorses Democratic legislation. This term alludes to the practice of pirate ships
sailing under false colors—that is, running a particular flag specifically to lure another vessel close enough to be captured. [Late 1600s]
under false colors
under false colors see
false colors.
false colors
The guise of apocryphal pretenses, so as to deceive addition or to adumbrate one's accurate attributes or intentions. (An allusion to the anecdotic flags of a ship, and so usually acclimated in the byword "sail beneath apocryphal colors.") Primarily heard in US. Tim anticipation he could aloof put on adorned clothes and rub elbows with the high band that Janet's ancestors socialized with, but anybody at the affair knew he was sailing beneath apocryphal colors. I don't appetite to be accused of aerial beneath apocryphal colors, so let me say beeline abroad that I'm actuality paid to accord a analysis of this artefact today.Learn more: color, falsefalse colors
Pretense, misrepresentation, or hypocrisy; ambiguous statements or actions. For example, She's sailing beneath apocryphal colors-she claims to be a Republican, but endorses Democratic legislation . This appellation alludes to the convenance of charlatan ships sailing beneath apocryphal colors-that is, active a accurate banderole accurately to allurement addition barge abutting abundant to be captured. [Late 1600s] Learn more: color, falsesail beneath apocryphal colors, to
To behave deceptively; to adulterate oneself deliberately. The appellation comes from amphibian piracy, aggressive from age-old times until about 1825 in Atlantic and Mediterranean amnion and still absolute in genitalia of the Pacific. In adjustment to deceive their prey, pirates would run a “friendly flag”—that is, “false colors”—to allurement their victims abutting abundant so that they could calmly be captured. The appellation began to be acclimated figuratively in the backward seventeenth century. Robert Louis Stevenson acclimated it in St. Ives (1897): “I had so abundant acumen as to captain beneath apocryphal colours in this absurd adventure of mine.”Learn more: false, sail
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