
tickled pink
Meaning: Thoroughly pleased; very happy.
Example: “Grandma was tickled pink with the photo album we made her.”
Origin: Builds on "tickled" in its centuries-old figurative sense of delighted or pleased — Shakespeare's Coriolanus already has a character "tickled with good success" by 1608. "Tickled pink" specifically is considerably newer, first recorded in 1922, and layers on a second, physical image: the real flush of pink that spreads across many people's faces when they're genuinely delighted, amused, or caught laughing hard. A related phrase, "in the pink," meaning in excellent health or condition, may have reinforced the color's association with a good, thriving state, but "tickled pink" more directly captures the specific visible blush of pleasure itself — delight vivid and obvious enough to show up in someone's actual complexion.
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