colourish meaning (obsolete): definition, quotations

colourish

noun

Obsolete A substance used in gilding to brighten the finish of the gilded object.

Muffola, a kind of colour that goldsmithes call colourish.1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, or, Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, London: Edw. Blount, page 234:
1671, Robert Boyle, Some Considerations Touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy, Oxford: Ric. Davis, Volume 2, Essay I, Section V, p. 27, For having by this means overlaid it evenly with Gold, they can easily with fire force away the Mercury; and, with a liquor impregnated with Nitre, Verdigrease, Sal Armoniack, and other Saline Bodies, which they call a Colourish, restore its lustre to the remaining Gold, which they after make bright by polishing.

verb

Obsolete To add colour to, to brighten with colour.

Would truth dispense, we could be content, with Plato, that knowledge were but Remembrance; that Intellectuall acquisition were but Reminiscentiall evocation, and new impressions but the colourishing of old stamps which stood pale in the soul before.1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 2nd edition, London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, published 1650, Preface: