green around the gills
Nauseated. After all that drinking last night, I sure am green around the gills today. The steady rocking of the boat caused Colleen to be green around the gills. We were all green around the gills after such a turbulent plane ride.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
green around the gills
If someone looks green around the gills, they look ill, as if they are going to vomit. Kenny stumbled out from the washroom looking rather green around the gills. Note: The gills of a fish are the organs it uses to breathe instead of lungs. This is being used as a humorous term for the mouth.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
green around the gills
verbMcGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
green around the gills
Looking ill; sick to one’s stomach. A green complexion has signified illness since about 1300, and “rosy about the gills” has meant being in good health since the late seventeenth century. Sir Francis Bacon used red about the gills to signify anger (1626), whereas in the nineteenth century white and yellow about the gills meant looking ill. However, green won out and survives in the present-day cliché.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer