Quick answer: “Green with envy” means extremely jealous or envious of someone else's success, possessions, or good fortune.
Green with envy — Extremely jealous or envious of someone else's success, possessions, appearance, or good fortune.
Meaning
To be “green with envy” is to feel a strong, often visible pang of jealousy toward someone else, usually because of something they have or have achieved — a new car, a promotion, a holiday, or good luck in general. The phrase paints envy as a colour that seems to spread across a person, making the feeling vivid and easy to picture.
The idiom is used in everyday conversation to describe both serious jealousy and light, joking envy over small things, such as a friend's delicious lunch or a colleague's new phone. It is informal to neutral in tone and appears frequently in casual speech, lifestyle writing, and social media commentary.
Origin & Usage Note
The link between the colour green and envy or jealousy has a long history in English, appearing in Shakespeare's plays, where jealousy is famously called the “green-eyed monster”. It is thought that this association may go back to an old idea that strong emotions, including envy, could make a person's complexion look pale or sickly green. Over the centuries, the fixed phrase “green with envy” became the standard way to describe this feeling in English, and it remains one of the most recognisable colour idioms today.
Example Sentences
| Sentence | Context |
|---|---|
| When she saw her neighbour's new sports car, she was green with envy. | Envy over a possession |
| My brother was green with envy when I told him about my trip to Japan. | Envy over an experience or opportunity |
| He tried to hide it, but you could tell he was green with envy about her promotion. | Envy over professional success |
| The other players were green with envy at his new football boots. | Casual, playful envy among peers |
| She posted the photos just to make her old classmates green with envy. | Social media; deliberately provoking envy |
How to Use It
The idiom is almost always used with the verb “to be”, as in “he was green with envy”, or with verbs like “make” or “turn”, as in “it made her green with envy”. It works well in spoken English and informal writing but is generally too casual for formal reports or academic essays, where “envious” or “jealous” alone would be more appropriate.
Common Mistakes
Mistakes to Avoid
He was yellow with envy after hearing the news.
He was green with envy after hearing the news. — The idiom always uses the colour “green”; no other colour is correct in this fixed expression.
She felt green of envy watching her friend's vacation photos.
She felt green with envy watching her friend's vacation photos. — The correct preposition is “with”, not “of”.
The car itself was green with envy in the showroom.
Everyone who saw the car was green with envy. — The idiom describes a person's feeling, not a literal object's colour.
Similar Idioms
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Quick Check: Green with envy
2 questions — test what you just learned.
1. What does “green with envy” mean?
2. Complete the sentence: “When she saw the new car, she was _____.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “green with envy” mean?
“Green with envy” means to be extremely jealous or envious of someone else's success, possessions, appearance, or good fortune. It describes a strong, often visible feeling of wanting what someone else has.
Where does the expression “green with envy” come from?
The association between the colour green and envy or sickness goes back many centuries in English literature, including the works of Shakespeare, who referred to jealousy as a “green-eyed monster”. The idea likely comes from an old belief that strong emotion, including envy, could make a person's complexion appear pale or greenish. Over time, “green with envy” became the standard fixed phrase for describing intense jealousy.
Can you give an example of “green with envy” in a sentence?
Here is an example: “When she saw her neighbour's new sports car, she was green with envy.” The sentence shows the speaker's strong feeling of jealousy at someone else's possession.
Is “green with envy” formal or informal?
The idiom is informal to neutral. It is common in everyday conversation, magazine writing, and light journalism, but it would generally be avoided in strictly formal or academic contexts, where a word like “envious” alone would be preferred.
What CEFR level is “green with envy”?
This idiom is typically encountered at B1 level. It is one of the more accessible colour idioms, often introduced early because its imagery is vivid and easy for learners to picture and remember.
What are common mistakes with “green with envy”?
A common mistake is changing the colour, saying “yellow with envy” or “red with envy” instead of “green”, which is the only colour used in this fixed idiom. Another error is dropping the preposition “with”, producing the incorrect “green of envy”. Learners should also remember the phrase describes the person feeling envy, not the object being envied.
What is the difference between “green with envy” and the “green-eyed monster”?
“Green with envy” describes a person's state of feeling jealous, while “the green-eyed monster” personifies jealousy itself as a creature that can take hold of someone, as in “the green-eyed monster got the better of him”. Both expressions share the same colour association popularised in English literature.
Can “green with envy” be used humorously?
Yes. It is often used in a light-hearted or exaggerated way to describe mild jealousy over small things, such as a friend's holiday photos or a colleague's new gadget, rather than only serious or bitter envy.
How do I practise idioms like “green with envy”?
LexFizz's Flip Tiles and Flash Cards exercises are excellent for practising English idioms in context. Try writing your own example sentences and look for the idiom in magazine articles, social media captions, or casual dialogue in films and TV shows.
Is “green with envy” used in both British and American English?
Yes. “Green with envy” is used identically and understood widely in both British and American English, and it appears often in everyday speech, advertising, and popular writing across the English-speaking world.