paint the town red
Meaning: to celebrate wildly; to party extensively.
Language: English
Literally: to paint the town red
Category: The Absurd
Origin: There is a real incident behind the usual story. In 1837 the Marquis of Waterford and a group of friends, drunk after a hunt, ran riot through Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire and literally applied red paint to doors, a toll bar, and a swan statue; the town has never entirely stopped mentioning it. The difficulty is chronological: the phrase itself is first attested in American English decades later, in the 1880s, which is a long silence for a supposedly direct descent, and etymologists generally treat the connection as unproven. The alternative is that the expression was built independently from obvious materials — red as the color of blood, fire, and disorder — and that the Melton Mowbray story was attached afterward because it fit so well.
More idioms — The Absurd
- Quand les poules auront des dents — Never — it describes something that will simply never happen.
- Mad as a hatter — Completely eccentric or unhinged.
- No hay tu tía — There's no way around it; nothing can be done.
- Avere gli occhi foderati di prosciutto — To be unable to see what is right in front of you.
- Viajar na maionese — To talk nonsense or drift off into your own dream world.
- Skägget i brevlådan — Caught red-handed in an awkward, embarrassing position.
More English idioms
- get the short end of the stick — to receive unfair treatment; to get the worse deal.
- fit as a fiddle — in excellent physical condition; healthy.
- no love lost — mutual dislike; bad relations between people.
- take the plunge — to commit to something risky; to make a decisive move.
- a nose for something — a talent for finding or recognizing something; keen instinct.
- throw in the towel — to give up; to concede defeat.
From our tongue twisters
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.
- The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. — Believed by Guinness to be among the hardest in English — 'six/sick/sheikh/sheep' blur in…
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.