See Also: Cape Town(encyclopedia)
Cape Town(dictionary)
Cape Town Mediclinic(health)
cape(dictionary)
cape(2)(dictionary)
Cape Air(tourism)
cape(1)(dictionary)
cape(dictionary)
Cape Cod(dictionary)
Cape Cod(encyclopedia)

claret (iou) and Cape Town (sh)


claret (iou)



claret adjective & noun. LME.
[Old French (vin) claret (mod. clairet) orig. of light-red wines, from clare: see CLARY noun1.]
A. adjective.
claret Wine = sense B.1 below. LME-E18.
Of the colour of claret. M16.
b. noun.
Orig., Wine of a yellowish or light-red colour, as distinguished from white or red Wine; later, red Wine generally. Now, (a) red Wine from Bordeaux in France; transf. (a) Wine of the same character from some Other country. Also, a drink of such Wine. E16.
Blood. slang. E17.
The colour of claret, (now) a reddish violet. M17.
Phrases: riddle of claret: see RIDDLE noun2 1. tap a person's claret slang make a person's nose bleed by a blow with the fist.
Comb.: claret colour = sense 3 above; claret-coloured adjective of the colour claret.
clare'teer noun (now rare or obsolete) a drinker of claret L17.
clarety adjective E18.

Cape Town (sh)




Afrikaans Kaapstad

City (pop., 1996 est., metro. area: 2,415,408), legislative capital, South Africa.

Located on Table Bay, it was formerly the capital of Cape Province. Long the country's major seaport, it was surpassed in the 1980s by Durban. The first settlement at Table Bay, it was founded by the Dutch navigator Jan van Riebeeck for the Dutch East India Co., and it soon served as a stopover for ships plying the Europe-to-India route. It was under Dutch rule intermittently until it was taken by the British in 1806. Today it is a commercial and cultural centre. See also Pretoria; Bloemfontein.