picture of health
One who is or looks especially healthy, robust, of full of vitality. My grandmother is nearly 70 and smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, but somehow she's still the picture of health. It's amazing how having a bit of a tan can make someone a picture of health.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
the picture of health
or a picture of health
If someone is the picture of health or a picture of health, they look very healthy. He lay propped on pillows, looking the picture of health, his skin tanned, his jaw firm. Today, Ryan Carroll is a picture of health. Note: Other words can be used instead of health to emphasize how someone looks. He was hardly a picture of elegance. Day after day she came and sat with us and looked a picture of misery.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
picture of health, the
A model of well-being. This complimentary description has been around since the late eighteenth century. Jane Austen used it in Emma (1815): “One hears sometimes of a child being ‘the picture of health.’”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer