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Motley   /mˈɑtli/   Listen
adjective
Motley  adj.  (compar. motlier; superl. motliest)  
1.
Variegated in color; consisting of different colors; dappled; party-colored; as, a motley coat.
2.
Wearing motley or party-colored clothing. See Motley, n., 1. "A motley fool."
3.
Composed of different or various parts; heterogeneously made or mixed up; discordantly composite; as, motley style.



noun
Motley  n.  
1.
A combination of distinct colors; esp., the party-colored cloth, or clothing, worn by the professional fool. "Motley 's the only wear."
2.
Hence, a jester, a fool. (Obs.)
Man of motley, a fool. (Obs.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Motley" Quotes from Famous Books



... that miserable noontide, about four hundred human beings—a weak, hungry, and emaciated looking throng for the most part; their half naked forms, browned by the sun, and hardened by the winter winds—a motley gathering; amongst whom there were scores of fasting men, and hundreds through whose wretched dwellings the, wind and rain found free ingress. They were poor, they were weak, they were ignorant, they were unarmed! ...
— Speeches from the Dock, Part I • Various

... merely a proof that his appetite for books has run beyond his digestion. Or his industry may be to seek. You expect an omelette, and presently up come the unbroken eggs. A tissue of quotation wisely looked at is indeed but a motley garment, eloquent either of a fool, or an idle knave in ...
— Certain Personal Matters • H. G. Wells

... races. Among them were incomparable voltigeurs of the best blood of the North African Moors, Tartar bowmen, Negro wrestlers, Indian divers, and Turks, who generally accompanied the Cardinal on his hunting expeditions. When he was overtaken by an early death (1535), this motley band carried the corpse on their shoulders from Itri to Rome, and mingled with the general mourning for the open-handed Cardinal their medley of tongues ...
— The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt

... and patcher, imitator or redactor. It is not easy to tell from Kirchhoff just how many persons may have had a hand in this making of the Odyssey, as it lies before us. In his dissertations we read of a motley multitude: original poet, continuator, interpolator, redactor, reconstructor, imitator, author of the older part, author of the newer part—not merely individuals, but apparently classes of men. Thus he anatomizes ...
— Homer's Odyssey - A Commentary • Denton J. Snider

... dawn 320 British regulars and 400 Canadian militia were in readiness to embark; and, as sunrise coloured the sky, a motley fleet pushed off from the Canadian shore. The war vessel Queen Charlotte and the batteries at Sandwich opened fire, while the wooded shores re-echoed to the savage yells of 600 painted braves. Brock stood erect in the foremost boat, which steered towards Springwells, about four miles below ...
— Tecumseh - A Chronicle of the Last Great Leader of His People; Vol. - 17 of Chronicles of Canada • Ethel T. Raymond


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