Word.ws English Dictionary

green around the gills

green around the gills is the alternative form of green about the gills.

Meaning of green about the gills

Adjective

green about the gills

  1. (idiomatic) 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
    Synonyms:
    diseased

Questions about green around the gills

What is green around the gills the alternative form of?
Green around the gills is the alternative form of green about the gills.

Words near green around the gills in the dictionary

  1. green apple aphid
  2. green apron
  3. green aprons
  4. green armies
  5. green army
  6. green around the gills
  7. green arrow
  8. green arrows
  9. green artichoke
  10. green artichokes
  11. green as a gooseberry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: green around the gills (page history and authors); 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.

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