Image “Colorful” by Ole Houen on Flickr.com.

Summer is full of beautiful vibrant colors, which has inspired me to compile a list of colorful idioms in English. When I say ‘colorful idioms,’ I mean idioms in which colors are an important part of the idiomatic phrase. Since this week is also the week in which Americans celebrate their independence day (July 4th) the first few color idioms that I highlight relate to the colors connected with the American Independence Day: red, white, and blue. These are, of course, the colors found on the American flag, which is why they are the colors of the 4th of July holiday.

Colorful idioms:

to catch (someone) red handed – to find or catch a person in the middle of doing something wrong, naughty or illegal
Example: We caught Tommy red handed as he was taking all the candy from the bowl and putting it in his pocket.

to paint the town red – to go out and have a good time
Example: When I was in New York City I painted the town red every night.

a white lie – a harmless or inconsequential lie; a lie told to keep from hurting someone’s feelings or because the details are unimportant
Example: Oh it doesn’t really matter; it is just a little white lie.

to whitewash (something) – to cover up some of the facts and make something sound better than it actually is; covering up faults, errors, or wrong doing
Example: The employees managed to whitewash what happened in the accident to the managers.

to get the blues – to feel sad or depressed;
Example: I get the blues for a few days whenever I come home from a vacation.

to talk until you are blue in the face – to talk a lot
Example: Whenever I see Annette she is talking about politics until she is blue in the face.

a/the black sheep – the person in a family or group who is different from everyone else
(This idiom is usually used in a negative manner.)
Example: Jill is the black sheep in our family.

a gray area – something that is not fully clear or well defined
Example: How we are going to write up the final report is a bit of a gray area still.

the grass is always greener on the other side – someone else or someplace else always seems more appealing then one’s own life situation
Example: My sister believes the grass is always greener on the other side and because of this she is always changing jobs.

a/the pink slip – a notice of termination from a job
Example: The factory gave the pink slip to 25 workers yesterday.

yellow-bellied – cowardly
(This is often an insulting term.)
Example: Mike is a yellow-bellied, no-good, man!

I hope you find a way to make your English a bit more colorful by trying out some of these new idioms and phrases over the next week!