Idioms on Colours

• 
  
• Black and blue : To be bruised either because of a beating or otherwise.
  
  • I am going to beat you black and blue.
    
•  
• Catch someone red-handed : To get caught doing something wrong, illegal or unlawful.
  
  • He was spying on the minister and the police caught him red-handed.
    
•  
• Green with envy : To feel extremely jealous.
  
  • His expensive car made me go green with envy.
    
•  
• Off colour : A term used for someone looking weak or unwell.
  
  • He’d recovered from the attack but he still looked off colour.
    
•  
• Once in a blue moon : To refer to something that occurs very rarely.
  
  • I meet him only once in a blue moon.
    
•  
• See red : To be extremely angry about something
  
  • After she betrayed him, he was seeing red.
    
•  
• To show your true colours : When someone shows their true colours, they reveal the kind of person they really are.
  
  • He behaved very well until he was asked to work overtime; it was then that he showed his true colours.
    
•  
• To pass with flying colours : To pass something with flying colours is to do very well.
  
  • I had thought I wouldn’t clear the exams but I passed with flying colours.
    
•  
• Whitewash : To white wash something is to cover up its flaws.
  
  • The Indian government has been accused of trying to whitewash the Commonwealth games scandal.
    
•  
• Golden opportunity : A golden opportunity represents an opportunity that is very hard to come by and rather unexpected.
  
  • The deal was a golden opportunity and anyone would have been foolish to have not signed it.