shades of (someone or something)
A reminder, reminiscence, or approximation of someone or something in the past or another person or thing. She lined up the shot and got a perfect bull's-eye—shades of her former passion for marksmanship. He took a moment to collect himself after his outburst. "Shades of my father," he muttered to himself.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
shades of someone/something
If you have just mentioned a person or thing and you say shades of another person or thing, you mean that the first person or thing reminds you of the second one. MacDowell stars in a thriller as the wife of a criminal who has faked his death. Shades of The Third Man, perhaps? The debate was brought forward by a week, in an effort to prevent the protest planned for it by the students' leaders. Shades of 1968? Note: `Shade' is an old word for `ghost'.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012