What does collied mean?
'Collied' is an archaic English word meaning blackened or begrimed with soot or coal dust. It is the past participle of the verb 'colly', itself derived from 'coal', and it survives today almost solely as a literary curiosity. Its most celebrated appearance is in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Oberon describes 'the collied night' — a darkness so deep it seems smeared with coal. Writers also used it of faces, hands, and walls stained by smoke, in an era when coal fires blackened much of daily life. Though no longer in common use, 'collied' retains a vivid, tactile quality that modern synonyms like 'sooty' or 'grimy' lack, evoking the industrial and domestic landscapes of earlier centuries. It is best treated as a historical and poetic term: useful for readers of Renaissance drama and early modern literature, but out of place in contemporary prose except when deliberately archaic in flavour.
Blackened or begrimed with soot or coal dust; past participle of the archaic verb 'colly'.
"His hands were collied from a day at the forge."
Archaic; encountered chiefly in older texts.
(Of a surface, face, or the night sky) darkened or blackened as if with soot.
"The collied night hid the moon from view."
Most familiar from Shakespeare's phrase 'the collied night'.
Shakespeare used 'collied' for a night so dark it seemed smeared with coal soot — and the word has been smouldering in obscurity ever since.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of collied
'Collied' derives from the verb 'colly', meaning to blacken or begrime, which comes from 'coal' (Old English 'col'), reflecting the soot left by burning coal. The word was current in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, appearing in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1590s) in the phrase 'the collied night'. It fell out of everyday use as coal-smoke staining became less central to daily experience, surviving mainly in literary quotation.
Related word forms
How collied is actually used
Archaic and literary; today found almost exclusively in quotations of older poetry, most famously Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream ('the collied night'). Not part of ordinary modern vocabulary.
Easily confused with collied
'Collide' means to crash into something, while 'collied' means blackened with soot — they share only a superficial resemblance in spelling and sound.