# a coat of many colors

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/coat-of-many-colors
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

A conspicuous mark of favouritism that stirs up envy in others.

## Examples

- The boss's pet got a coat of many colors, and the team resented it.
- Handing the newest hire the corner office was a coat of many colors that turned the whole department against her.
- The scholarship, the mentorship, the front-row seat at every meeting — it amounted to a coat of many colors, and the favoured student never understood why her once-friendly classmates had grown so cold.

## Origin

In Genesis 37 the patriarch Jacob loves his son Joseph more than his other children and gives him an ornate robe — rendered by the King James translators as a coat of many colours. The gift is an unmistakable public sign of preference, and Joseph's brothers hate him for it, eventually selling him into slavery. Whether the Hebrew describes the colours or, as many scholars now think, a long-sleeved or richly worked garment, the point of the story survives either reading: it is the favouritism the coat advertises, not the fabric, that does the damage. In English a coat of many colours is any showy token of special treatment that marks one person out and breeds resentment in everyone left without one.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.