# What does ‘give the green light’ mean?

To “give the green light” means to authorise something to proceed. A 20th-century idiom drawn from railway and traffic signals; not in Brewer's 1898.

## What it means

- A 20th-century idiom drawn from railway and traffic signals; not in Brewer's 1898.

## Action steps

1. Very common in business decisions.
2. Example: The board finally gave the project the green light.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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