(as) brown as a berry
(as) brown as a berry
Having tanned skin due to sun exposure. Primarily heard in UK, Australia. She was as brown as a berry when she returned from her tropical vacation.
*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.
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.
as brown as a berry
(of a person) very suntanned.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.