Color Idioms
Did you know you can relate colors to feelings and you can tell how you feel using colors? When someone says “I’m blue” it doesn’t mean the person is blue. It means the person is sad. Or when you hear someone saying they are green with envy it means they are really jealous. Or if you are in the red, you are in debt, without money.
There are a lot of color idioms. Check the list below:
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
| Beet red | When your face turns red because of an embarrassing situation. | She turned beet red when she saw he was looking at her at the party. |
| Black market | Place where goods or money are illegally bought and sold | Did you buy this at the black market? Are you crazy? You can get in trouble! |
| Black out | To pass out; to become unconscious | After he felt, he had a black out. |
| Black sheep | A bad member of the group. | That girl is the black sheep of her family. She doesn’t do anything right. |
| Golden opportunity | Perfect chance or opportunity | This is a golden opportunity for you to increase your business. |
| Green light | Permission | The green light was given to him to do whatever he wanted at the company. |
| In the dark | Unaware; uninformed | The parents were in the dark about their son situation. |
| Out of the blue | Unexpectedly | She called me out of the blue. I couldn’t say no to her. |
| See red | Be very angry | They saw red when they caught their daughter lying. |
| True colors | A person’s true attitude | Can you see her true colors now? |
| White lie | An innocent lie to not hurt someone’s feelings | She asked if I liked her dress. I said yes. I couldn’t say no. It’s just a white lie. |
Also learn from Captain English about Relative Pronouns