(as) brown as a berry
Having tanned skin because of prolonged sun exposure. Primarily heard in UK, Australia. She was as brown as a berry when she returned from her tropical vacation. It's so funny, I immediately burn in the sun, while my sister gets as brown as a berry. After a week at the beach, we were both brown as a berry.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
*brown as a berry
very brown from the sun; quite suntanned. (*Also: as ~.) She was out in the sun so much that she became as brown as a berry.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
brown as a berry
If someone is as brown as a berry, they are very tanned because they have been out in the sun. Steve Hobbs had just come back from his holiday. Brown as a berry he was, when he came round here the following Monday. She rode out to the yacht in a launch with a basket of fresh vegetables to find Franklin brown as a berry and in his usual fine spirits. Note: The reference may be to juniper or cedar berries, which are brown, as most other berries are red, purple, or white.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
as brown as a berry
(of a person) very suntanned.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
brown as a berry
The color brown; today, suntanned. This simile dates from the time of Chaucer, who used it in the Prologue to his Canterbury Tales (“His palfrey [horse] was as broune as is a berye”) and in The Coke’s Tale. It is particularly odd that the comparison should survive for more than six centuries because few, if any, natural berries are brown.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer