Color idioms
15 idioms last verified 2026-07-18
Idioms that turn on colour — red, blue, green, black, white — often carrying old symbolic weight recorded in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898).
About this category
Idioms that turn on colour — red, blue, green, black, white — often carrying old symbolic weight recorded in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898). Each entry below gives the plain meaning, an origin note honestly attributed to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) or marked as uncertain, and a usage example.
Answers in this topic
- What does ‘tickled pink’ mean?
- What does ‘true blue’ mean?
- What does ‘white lie’ mean?
- What does ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ mean?
- What does ‘a golden opportunity’ mean?
- What does ‘paint the town red’ mean?
- What does ‘see red’ mean?
- What does ‘in the red / in the black’ mean?
- What does ‘a grey area’ mean?
- What does ‘give the green light’ mean?
- What does ‘green with envy’ mean?
- What does ‘the black sheep’ mean?
- What does ‘a white elephant’ mean?
- What does ‘caught red-handed’ mean?
- What does ‘once in a blue moon’ mean?
Questions
- Where do the origins for color idioms come from?
- Origins on this page are drawn from public-domain reference works, primarily Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898). Where the origin is disputed or unknown, the entry says so plainly.
- Are these idioms still in modern use?
- Most are in everyday English; a few are chiefly literary or old-fashioned, and those are flagged in the usage notes.
Source:
Last verified: 2026-07-18