{"id":7457,"date":"2020-08-31T09:32:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T13:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=7457"},"modified":"2020-08-20T09:43:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T13:43:44","slug":"color-idioms-in-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/color-idioms-in-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Color idioms in English"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Greetings to all readers! How has life been treating you lately? Well, if you have the blues, cheer up!\u00a0<\/span>For today\u2019s post, we\u2019ll have the golden opportunity to learn some color-related idioms. So if you\u2019re looking for a vocabulary boost or a way to expand your cultural knowledge. So let\u2019s paint the town red?<\/p>\n<h3><b>to be caught red-handed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">catch someone while doing something wrong or illegal<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They set up a surveillance camera in the building in order to<\/span><b> catch <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the thieves <\/span><b>red-handed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The dog was <\/span><b>caught red-handed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> trying to steal a piece of meat from the kitchen counter.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>green thumb<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; to have skills with plants<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With such a huge garden and lovely rose beds, you must really have a <\/span><b>green thumb<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to live here!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I wish I had a <\/span><b>green thumb<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, even my cactus died on me!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>white lie<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; a harmless lie to prevent others from getting hurt<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who cares if I lied about being sick to avoid going to Sheila\u2019s baby shower? It was just a <\/span><b>white lie<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I had to tell Jane a<\/span><b> white lie<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> so she wouldn\u2019t feel bad about her new hairstyle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>to be in the red <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8211; to be in debt<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the Johnson\u2019s were in the red, they had to sell their car to pay off all debts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After <\/span><b>being<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> two years<\/span><b> in the red<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the\u00a0 company\u2019s business is finally picking up and will soon be profitable.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>to be kept in the dark (about something) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8211; to keep a secret from someone<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The employees were<\/span><b> kept in the dark<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about the possible layoffs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The police are<\/span><b> keeping <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the press <\/span><b>in the dark<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about the ongoing investigation.<\/span><\/span>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_7456\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7456\" class=\" wp-image-7456\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/08\/balloons-1786430_640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"496\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/08\/balloons-1786430_640.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/08\/balloons-1786430_640-350x200.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7456\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Color idioms in English (Photo by Artturi M\u00e4ntysaari from Pixabay)<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>out of the blue<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; to happen unexpectedly<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The whole family was surprised when my father simply quit his job <\/span><b>out of the blue<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and decided to start writing a novel.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The cyclist came <\/span><b>out of blue<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and I nearly ran over him with my car.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>to have the blues <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8211; to feel sad or depressed<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is normal to <\/span><b>feel the blues<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> during wintertime.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whenever I <\/span><b>get the blues<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I just treat myself to an evening in the movies to cheer up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>once in a blue moon <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8211; very rarely, almost never<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I try to eat healthy, so I only have fast-food <\/span><b>once in a blue moon.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our family can only afford to travel abroad <\/span><b>once in a blue moon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>black sheep<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; a person or family member who doesn\u2019t fit in the group<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Everyone thinks my sister is the <\/span><b>black sheep<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in our family because she dropped out of college.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They started treating Jim like the <\/span><b>black sheep<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> just because he wasn\u2019t into sports.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>gray area<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; something unclear or without precise rules<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a legal <\/span><b>grey area<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, you\u2019d better contact a lawyer before proceeding.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is a <\/span><b>grey area<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about office relationships, although dating someone in the company isn\u2019t explicitly forbidden<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>green light<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; permission to proceed<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We have been given the<\/span><b> green light<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">by the City Council to start construction.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The marketing department finally gave us the <\/span><b>green light<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to kick off the new campaign.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>red tape <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8211; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">excessive paperwork or bureaucracy<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cutting through <\/span><b>red tape<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> could help qualified labor in the the immigration process.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There\u2019s a lot of <\/span><b>red tape<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to go through when it comes to getting a permit.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, did you already know any of these expressions? Can you name any other color-related idioms? Let us know in the comment box below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/08\/balloons-1786430_640-350x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/08\/balloons-1786430_640-350x200.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/08\/balloons-1786430_640.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Greetings to all readers! How has life been treating you lately? Well, if you have the blues, cheer up!\u00a0For today\u2019s post, we\u2019ll have the golden opportunity to learn some color-related idioms. So if you\u2019re looking for a vocabulary boost or a way to expand your cultural knowledge. So let\u2019s paint the town red? to be&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/color-idioms-in-english\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":7456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,135139,135370],"tags":[536767,536766,536764,536765,333436],"class_list":["post-7457","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-english-language","category-english-vocabulary","tag-business-idioms","tag-color-idioms","tag-color-related-idioms","tag-colors-in-english","tag-english-idioms"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7457"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7463,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457\/revisions\/7463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}