green about the gills

Idioms  

1. Also, green around the gills. Looking ill or nauseated, as in After that bumpy ride she looked quite green about the gills. The use of green to describe an ailing person's complexion dates from about 1300, and gills has referred to the flesh around human jaws and ears since the 1600s. Although in the 1800s white and yellow were paired with gills to suggest illness, the alliterative green has survived them.

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Example Sentences

You want to keep going until the animal that is your bur­den—your tiger, your rhinoceros, whatever—is properly green about the gills with seasickness.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

You’re looking rather green about the gills, old chap.’

From A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir

Fancher, feeling rather green about the gills, returned the greeting.

From Rebels of the Red Planet by Fontenay, Charles Louis

To add to the anxieties of the skipper his crew of boys, though showing no funk, began to grow green about the gills, and presently Warington found himself in command of an entirely sea-sick crew.

From The Story of Baden-Powell 'The Wolf That Never Sleeps' by Begbie, Harold

"Torry does look a bit green about the gills," put in Whistler.

From Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns Sinking the German U-Boats by Owen, R. Emmett (Robert Emmett)