green about the gills
green about the gills adjective: ill or unwell, especially as indicated by one's appearance.
Adjective
green about the gills
- Ill or unwell, especially as indicated by one's appearance.
- "You're looking rather green about the gills, old chap."
"I feel a little chippy to-day."
"That's the worst of these cheap champagnes."1899, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 6, in A Duet - Although he boarded his ship with wristbands and pills intended to ward off any possible queasiness, he did not turn green about the gills.2007 February 25, Christopher Elliott, “Strategies to Make More Passengers Maiden Voyagers”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Sep 2013
- Synonyms:
- diseased
- "You're looking rather green about the gills, old chap."
Synonyms of green about the gills
Forms of green about the gills
| alternative form | green around the gills |
|---|---|
| alternative form | green at the gills |
| alternative form | green in the gills |
Questions about green about the gills
- What does green about the gills mean?
- Green about the gills means ill or unwell, especially as indicated by one's appearance.
- What part of speech is green about the gills?
- Green about the gills is an adjective.
Words near green about the gills in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: green about the gills (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-green about the gills.ogg.
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