 10 English Idioms with Color Words from EspressoEnglish.net Idioms can make your English more colorful, with more variety. Today, you'll learn 10 idiomatic expressions using color words. 1. Red Tape Red tape refers to complicated, inefficient bureaucracy that stops things from getting done. For example, it took me 10 months to open my company because of all the red tape. Red tape is a bad thing, because it prevents progress. 2. Red Carpet Treatment When a celebrity arrives at an event, they often put a red carpet for the famous person to walk on. So, the expression red carpet treatment refers to extra special and fancy treatment. Another way to say this is rolling out the red carpet. For example, let's say you're interviewing for a job at a famous company and the company really wants you to work there. You could say, they flew me out for the job interview and really gave me the red carpet treatment. They flew me out means they paid for my plane ticket. And the red carpet treatment means they gave you extra special treatment as if you are a special or important person. 3. Green Thumb If someone has a green thumb, it means that they have a great ability to make plants grow and they enjoy and are good at working with plants. For example, my aunt has quite the green thumb. She grows all her own vegetables in her garden. 4. Give the Green Light This means to give permission or give approval to do something or to go ahead with a project. For example, I can't post anything on the company Facebook page unless the boss gives the green light, meaning give permission or give approval. 5. Out of the Blue Out of the blue means something happened completely unexpectedly. For example, I hadn't heard from Jennifer in years and then she called me out of the blue. 6. Until You Are Blue in the Face This expression means for an extremely long time, often referring to talking or arguing. For example, you can argue until you're blue in the face but I'm still not going to agree with you. 7. Brown Bagging This expression means to make your own lunch at home and bring it to work, often in a brown paper bag, instead of buying your meal or eating at a restaurant. For example, brown bagging your lunch can save you thousands of dollars per year. 8. White Knuckle The joints between your fingers and the palm of your hand are called knuckles. The first K in this word is silent. And if you hold on to something extremely tightly, your knuckles turn white from all the pressure. So the expression white knuckle means to survive an extremely stressful experience. For example, if you took a taxi through a dangerous area and the driver was going very fast and out of control, you would be nervous that the car might crash. Afterwards you could say that sure was a white knuckle taxi ride. 9. Gray Area The color gray is a mix between black and white. It is a color that is in the middle of these two extremes. If something is described as a gray area, it means that it is ambiguous or not well defined. Sometimes people describe complex moral or ethical issues as gray areas if there are no clear or obvious answers. 10. Pot Calling the Kettle Black We use this expression when person A is accusing or attacking person B for something that also applies to person A. For example, let's say there's a man named John who's always late for work. One day John's colleague David arrives late and John yells at David for being late. That is the pot calling the kettle black because John is often guilty of the same thing. This expression comes from two items in the kitchen. A pot is used to cook food and a kettle is used to heat up water. In the past both items were usually black. So the pot calling the kettle black is an expression we use when one person is accusing another person of something which the first person is also guilty of. If you'd like to continue learning common idioms in English, check out my English Idioms course. It will help you discover lots of new expressions. Click on the link in the video for more information and a free sample lesson.