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1917 Admiralty Order 2 July (MS.) The ‘Dazzle’ painting of a ship with large patches of strong colour in a carefully thought-out pattern and colour scheme.

1919 Times 29 May 8/1 ‘Dazzle’, to use the term employed by the camouflage department of the Admiralty.

1919 Times 5 June 10/2 A ‘dazzle’ painted ship is on the whole more visible against sky and sea than the usual grey vessel, and this was its chief disadvantage. Furthermore, ‘dazzle’ painting was designed for short range, at which it is impossible to conceal a vessel against its background.

1919 Times 9 June 6/4 Dazzle painting was never intended for use on ‘ships of the line’, but only for merchantmen..and war vessels working with them.

1919 Athenæum 11 July 583/2 The other service [sc. the Navy] invented ‘dazzle’.

1920 Blackwood's Mag. Oct. 94/2 A geological ‘dazzle-painting’ in ochre and red, brown, purple, and buff.

1921 W. Stevens Let. 5 Dec. (1967) 223 From time immemorial the philosophers and other scene painters have daubed the sky with dazzle paint.

1922 Glasgow Herald 28 Apr. 9 A ‘tramp’ steamer, ‘dazzle’ painted.

1928 C. F. S. Gamble Story N. Sea Air Station xxii. 400 It was decided that all flying-boats should have their hulls ‘dazzle-painted’.

1932 R. Kipling Limits & Renewals 309 Then, area by area, she [sc. a sow] was painted with dazzle-patterns of greenish-yellow and purple-brown.

1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident i. 9 The superstructure was made of wood, and we'd dazzle-painted the sides.