true colors
17
4.9
- noun
- Informal
:
verdadero carácter
- He seemed friendly at first, but in the end, his true colors became clear.
- show your true colors
And like they started just showing their true colors.
- And like they started just showing their true colors.
- And then after that, his real true colors came out.
- And then he's, he just slowly started to show his true colors.
- OK, Well, so yeah, she's shown us true colours now.
- And he will only reveal his true colours once he's firmly entrenched in power.
Examples
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Topher's finally showing his true colors.
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Then he'll show his true colors.
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So it really shows what your true colors are.
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Peter finally showed me his true colors.
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Now your true colors show.
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I guess she decided to show her true colors.
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I can see your true colors shining through.
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Thank you for making a stand and forcing them to show their true colors.
Blog text (2) -
The Republican Party has shown its true colors by making much of this voter fraud issue.
Blog text (13) -
Such an angry world we live in, and people show their true colors in these blogs.
Blog text (18)
Synonyms
20
4.9
A person's real self, not the face they show others
6
4.3
The real reasons someone has for their actions, often hidden
Antonyms
How Revealed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase maps 'true' (genuine) onto 'colors' as a metaphor for someone’s outward appearance or persona, so a learner who knows both words can partly infer that it refers to someone’s real character. However, the idiomatic nuance of 'revealing character or intentions'—especially as a fixed phrase often used as 'show your true colors'—is a metaphorical, language-specific extension that B1 learners may not fully predict without exposure.
Etymology
True colors may come from old ships that sometimes showed a false flag to trick others and then raised their true colors before a fight. That act revealed who they really were, so today the phrase means 'a person's real character or intentions'.