multicolour yawn

9.9

A thing with many bright colours that looks boring and not creative

noun

: aburrido colorido

Even though the painting was bright and busy, it ended up looking like a multicolour yawn to most viewers.

Examples

The designer's new spring collection was a multicolour yawn that failed to impress critics.
All the decorations combined into a multicolour yawn, lacking any real creativity.
That painting is just a multicolour yawn.
The festival decorations felt like a multicolour yawn to me.
The designer's new spring collection resembled a multicolour yawn, with vibrant hues that lacked originality.
Although the garden was filled with bright flowers, it was still a multicolour yawn lacking any cohesive theme.
Many people commented that the mural was a multicolour yawn, visually striking yet uninspired overall.

Synonyms

yawner

vsmulticolour yawn

Informal

1 7.1

A thing or person that is so boring you lose interest

is vividly coloured yet still dull and uninspired

How Interesting

masterpiece

156 3.8

showpiece

5 4.4

eye-catcher

1 4.1

multicolour yawn

9.9

dud

Informal

14 4.7

Surface Forms

multicolour yawn singular

multicolour yawns plural

multicolor yawns plural

multicolor yawn singular

Morphology

multicolor + yawn

The adjective 'multicolour' (many bright colours) combined with 'yawn' (a sign of boredom) yields a meaning that a thing is colourful yet boring; this interpretation follows a clear metaphorical link and is inferable from the parts. However, the use of 'yawn' metaphorically and the ironic juxtaposition is creative rather than strictly compositional, so a B1 learner may need pragmatic inference or prior exposure to be fully confident.

Etymology

Multicolour yawn may come from the picture of something very bright that still makes you yawn. Multicolour shows many colours while a yawn shows you are bored, so the phrase describes things that look 'bright' but feel 'boring'.