troop the color

English

Verb

troop the color (third-person singular simple present troops the color, present participle trooping the color, simple past and past participle trooped the color)

1. (US) Alternative form of troop the colour.
   • 1896 September, “Trooping the Color. (From The Navy and Army Illustrated.)”, in Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, volume XIX, number LXXXIII, page 566:

     The ceremony of trooping the color is remarkable, if for no other reason, as being the only occasion in peace time when the sergeant-major draws his sword and salutes with it in exactly the same manner as does a commissioned officer.

   • 1953 [1952], Allan A[ndrew] Michie, God Save the Queen: A Modern Monarchy: What It Is and What It Does, New York, N.Y.: William Sloane Associates, Inc., →LCCN, page 72:

     However, back in the seventeenth century trooping was apparently a daily ceremony, when the battalion providing the king’s guard for the day trooped the color, and the Brigade of Guards still perpetuates this old custom during the month of June, when the regiment assigned to guard duty troops the color on the Horse Guards’ parade ground before marching off to the Palace, a display which many onlookers mistakenly take to be a dress rehearsal for the birthday parade.

   • 1985, John Sugden, Tecumseh’s Last Stand, Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 6:

     A mixed force of regulars trooped the color; a salute of fourteen guns was fired in Tecumseh’s honor; and speeches (one by Dr. Tecumseh K. Holmes, president of the Kent County Historical Association) recalled his services.

   • 2004, Peter Conradi, Hitler’s Piano Player: The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl, Confidant of Hitler, Ally of FDR, New York, N.Y.: Carroll & Graf Publishers, →ISBN, page 22:

     After four years in America, it was like stepping back into the eighteenth century: the young recruit shouldered arms, trooped the color, and stood guard outside the royal palace and other important buildings.

   • 2009, Tony Michaelides, The Insights Collection: Insights from the Engine Room: Lessons Learned from Rock and Roll, [Bayonet Point, Fla.]: Janson Media Group, →ISBN, page 29:

     They even crowned a queen for me the year I was born and trooped the color on my first birthday.

   • 2012, Craig Taylor, Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now—As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It, New York, N.Y.: Ecco, →ISBN, page 61:

     But then she would ride back and be immensely proud of her troops because we’d just trooped the color for her and although it’s gone on the same every year, every year’s exciting.