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/mˈɑtli/ Listen

adjective

Motley adj. (compar. motlier; superl. motliest)

Variegated in color; consisting of different colors; dappled; party-colored; as, a motley coat.

Wearing motley or party-colored clothing. See Motley, n., 1. "A motley fool."

Composed of different or various parts; heterogeneously made or mixed up; discordantly composite; as, motley style.

noun

Motley n.

A combination of distinct colors; esp., the party-colored cloth, or clothing, worn by the professional fool. "Motley 's the only wear."

Hence, a jester, a fool. (Obs.)

Man of motley, a fool. (Obs.)

See images of 'Motley'

Etymology of 'Motley'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Motley" Quotes from Famous Books

... hound!—a craven cur, that licks the hand that lashed him!—a poor court fool that thinks it joy enough to carry his bauble, and marvel at his motley coat and his silvered buttons! That he should be ...

— The White Lady of Hazelwood - A Tale of the Fourteenth Century • Emily Sarah Holt

... small portion of them—messengers, soldiers, and hunting parties—were riding northward, but the great mass was facing the City whither they were pressing to warm themselves in the glow of the Coronation. On foot, on horseback, in wagons and on crutches, they were as motley a throng as had ever trod the Roman stones; and the respectable element among them was by no means large enough to leaven the lump. Sometimes a group of merchants was to be seen, conducting loaded wagons; sometimes, a thane's pompous thane, ensheathed in his retinue; while occasionally, as they ...

— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz

... Rule (now the Christian Endeavor World) calls attention to an incident on a night railroad train narrated in the late Benjamin F. Taylor's World on Wheels, in which "this hymn appears as a sort of Traveller's Psalm." Among the motley collection of passengers, some talkative, some sleepy, some homesick and cross, all tired, sat two plain women who, "would make capital country aunts.... If they were mothers at all they were good ones." Suddenly in a dull silence, near twelve o'clock, ...

— The Story of the Hymns and Tunes • Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth

... motley crowd was laughing at the strange, ungirlish freak; And the boy was scared and panting, and so dashed he could not speak. And "Miss, I have good apples," a bolder lad did cry; But she answered, "No, I thank you," from the ...

— Poems Teachers Ask For • Various

... the terrible perils of the heroine. But the tribulations of Mary White have left no imprint on English literature. Chaucer's pilgrims have, and so long as the mere name of the Tabard survives, its recollection will bring in its train a moving picture of that merry and motley company which set out for the shrine of Becket so ...

— Inns and Taverns of Old London • Henry C. Shelley

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