paint the town red

Cultural  

1. To go carousing: “Arnie and a few of his buddies drove off in a big car Friday night and really painted the town red.”

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paint the town red Idioms  

1. Go on a spree, as in Whenever they go to New York they want to paint the town red. The precise allusion of this term is disputed. Some believe it refers to setting something on fire; others point to a vague association of the color red with violence. [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

Cornhusker Corner is open twelve months a year, seven days a week, serving to paint the town red.

From Time Magazine Archive

Returning to Blida a convinced nationalist, Benkhedda wrote patriotic pamphlets and organized a group to paint the town red with slogans for Algerian independence.

From Time Magazine Archive

Won't I paint the town red, that's all!

From A Student in Arms Second Series by Hankey, Donald

Plainly they were advertising the fact that they had come to paint the town red and did not care who knew it.

From A Man Four-Square by Raine, William MacLeod

The "Americanos" succeeded in waking up Nuevitas in some degree, and at night a few of them set out to "paint the town red".

From Pioneering in Cuba A Narrative of the Settlement of La Gloria, the First American Colony in Cuba, and the Early Experiences of the Pioneers by Adams, James Meade

Related Words

• honor
• laud
• observe
• perform
• praise
• proclaim
• revere