nail one's colours to the mast
"nail-one-s-colours-to-the-mast" is a 24-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nail one's colours to the mast” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 30
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To clearly show one's support for a side or opinion in a dispute, often indicating an intention to defend that side to the end.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nail-one-s-colours-to-th · nail one's colours to the mast · English
nail one's colours to the mast · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 30 letters
- VOW-10 10 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nail one's colours to the mast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 30 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “nail one's colours to the mast” in English
Rare enough to double-check
nail one's colours to the mast is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To clearly show one's support for a side or opinion in a dispute, often indicating an intention to defend that side to the end.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for nail one's colours to the mast, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the naval military practice of displaying one's colours (signal flags or insignia) from the mast of a ship during battle to show loyalty. To surrender, one would strike one's colours, i.e. take down one's flag. If a ship nailed its colours to the mast,… The correct English form is nail one's colours to the mast, spelled N-A-I-L- -O-N-E-'-S- -C-O-L-O-U-R-S- -T-O- -T-H-E- -M-A-S-T.
Definition
- 1To clearly show one's support for a side or opinion in a dispute, often indicating an intention to defend that side to the end.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nail one's colours to the mast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Stood for his country’s glory fast, And nail’d her colours to the mast!
He eventually nails his colours to the mast of strict determinism: every human action is inescapably caused by preceding events in the world, including events in the brain.
Etymology
From the naval military practice of displaying one's colours (signal flags or insignia) from the mast of a ship during battle to show loyalty. To surrender, one would strike one's colours, i.e. take down one's flag. If a ship nailed its colours to the mast, it would fight to the death and not surrender.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.