green about the gills
1
8.8
- idiom
- Informal
- After the roller coaster ride, she looked green about the gills and needed to sit down.
Examples
-
Distinctly green about the gills.
-
The smell from the spoiled food made him feel green about the gills.
-
He was green about the gills after eating too much at the party.
Synonyms
31
2.6
Often ill and looking weak or pale
17
1.0
Feeling like you might throw up
13
4.5
Feeling sick and likely to vomit
7
7.2
Looking pale and weak, as if unwell
4
6.2
Looking pale and unwell, as if about to be sick
2
5.5
Pale and looking ill
1
8.9
Feeling like you will throw up or making someone feel like that
1
5.0
Very pale from fear, shock, or illness
Antonyms
How Sick
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'green' already carries the sense 'sickly/pale', so a learner who knows that meaning could guess the expression refers to being unwell. However, the phrase 'about the gills' is a metaphorical reference to fish anatomy and does not follow a fully predictable compositional pattern, so the exact phrasing and nuance are not fully derivable without exposure.
Etymology
Green about the gills comes from comparing a sick person's face to a fish: the pale, green color near the cheeks and throat looked like a fish's gills, so saying someone was green about the gills means 'looking pale and sick'.