drab

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drab

1. a light olive-brown colour

2. a fabric of a dull grey or brown colour

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Drab

a heavy, thick woolen fabric of a complicated inter-woven machine-spun yarn. Drab consists usually of two layers and as a result has high heat-insulating properties. The outer face of the fabric is often made from a higher quality of wool than the inner. Depending on the structure and the design of the weave, drab may be made with or without nap, of one or many colors, and with a plain face or a design on the lining. Drab is used for winter and spring-autumn coats.

References in periodicals archive ?

- Cold weather parka (olive drab green with white fur collar) is authorized for wear in the colder climate areas where it is issued

Airman battle uniform

Whether painted in camouflaged olive drab or glistening in its unpainted natural silver finish, this aircraft, bristling with .50-caliber machine guns, struck fear and demanded respect from its German adversaries in the Luftwaffe.

B-17 at War

Black, white, and olive drab; racial integration at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and the civil rights movement.

Black, white, and olive drab; racial integration at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and the civil rights movement

ARMY BLUE as a uniform color traces its origins to the National Blue first worn by Soldiers in the Continental Army of 1779, and it continued to serve as the color for Army dress uniforms even after introduction of the olive drab field service uniform in 1902.

Beret wear & army service uniform

Castro appears alert and focused in the pictures, in which he is wearing an Adidas warm-up jacket in the red-white-and-blue colors of the Cuban flag instead of his trademark olive drab. A day earlier, the Communist Party newspaper Granma quoted an unidentified friend as saying a visit to the self-styled Maximum Leader found Castro walking, engaging in animated conversation and even doing some work.

Castro Brothers reassure Cubans

Colors are Mossy Oak New Break-Up, Advantage Timber, and Shannon Olive Drab (Shannon Outdoors, Inc., 1-800-852-8058, www.bugtarner.cam).

Equipment notes: bug-busting gear

A service patch on the left shoulder of his olive drab woolen uniform features a black panther crushing a tank.

A parade of gratitude

Typical body materials include brass, stainless steel and aluminum, plated with gold, silver, nickel, anodize and olive drab. Contacts materials are brass, beryllium copper or phosphor bronze, with gold or silver plating.

Obsolete connector replacements

Hunter's Boat and Tote, shown in camouflage and also available in olive drab, is water-resistant, durable, and this fall's must-have.

The IT list

Years of baking in the Texas sun had turned its olive drab color to a pale lime green.

Rededication gives whirlybird a new paint job

Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, honor, country.

"Duty, honor, country": "those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be". (Opinion Past)

Another mystery is why the terrorists decided to repaint the two launch tubes used to launch the surface-to-air missiles--from either camouflage khaki or olive drab to brilliant skyblue--and later abandoned them near the Mombasa Airport perimeter?

Paradise lost: there are more questions than answers in the ongoing investigation into the bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa. (Around Africa: Kenya)