Roses Are Red – and so are a lot of other things

February makes me think of red – red hearts, red flowers. I also realized that a lot of phrases use the word red. What is strange is that the phrases seem to either represent positive things OR negative things. I can’t think of another word that is used for such opposite meanings!

What do you think about these examples?

Positive thoughts: a red-letter day; walking on the red carpet; the football team is in the red zone.

Negative thoughts: cutting through red tape; caught red-handed; in the red (money-wise); the teacher redlined the student’s paper.

Then there is ‘take the red-eye,’ which describes perfectly what the airline passengers’ eyes look like upon arrival 🥱

2 thoughts on “Roses Are Red – and so are a lot of other things”

  1. Red alert from a red hot redhead: I am going to paint the town red and drink some Red Bull, and this is not a red herring

    Reply
    • These examples are great! Of course, you would know about them, being a “red hot redhead” 😃. Paint the town red (positive) and red herring (negative). What an interesting (and confusing!) word!

      Reply

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