Meaning
To refuse absolutely to surrender, yield or be moved; to declare openly for a side, opinion or policy and commit to it to the very end. From naval practice: lowering (striking) the colours was the signal of surrender, so nailing the flag to the mast made giving up physically impossible. British spelling colours, American colors. The traditional opposite is to strike one's colours. A frequent fixture of political and editorial writing. Pin one's colours to the mast is a recorded variant. Regional use: British English origin; common in all varieties (US spelling colors).
Origin
In the sailing-navy era, striking the colours signalled submission, and a captain resolved to fight on could have his flag nailed to the mast or to a splintered stump so it could not come down. Documented incidents include the capture of the Guillaume Tell in March 1800, where the Foudroyant's journal records that observers saw a man nail the French ensign to the stump of the mizen-mast, and Jack Crawford nailing Admiral Duncan's colours to the wreckage of the Venerable at Camperdown in 1797 - the Phrase Finder says the idiom is generally agreed to stem from that exploit and was unknown before it, verified on the fetched page. The figurative uses cluster in the following decade: Sheridan told the Commons (1 December 1800) that the colours should be nailed to the masts of the Nation, the Hereford Journal of August 1807 said Commodore Barron ought to have nailed your colours to the mast, and Word Histories names Walter Scott's Marmion (1808) - And nail'd her colours to the mast - as the earliest known figurative use. The underlying practice, unlike many nautical origin tales, is well attested.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- nail the flag to the mast
- pin one's colours to the mast
- pin your colors to the mast
Usage Examples
- The senator nailed her colors to the mast, promising to filibuster any attempt to roll back the law.
- Whatever happens to the merger, the board has nailed its colors to the mast on renewable investment.
- Critics urged compromise, but the mayor nailed his colors to the mast and refused to cut the library budget.