Idiom
green light
Meaning
Approval, or permission to proceed.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The boss gave us the green light to start the project.”
“After reviewing our budget proposal, the director finally gave us the green light to hire more staff.”
“Once the committee granted the green light for the construction project, the architects immediately began finalizing the blueprints for the new library.”
Examples
simple
“The boss gave us the green light to start the project.”
contextual
“After reviewing our budget proposal, the director finally gave us the green light to hire more staff.”
complex
“Once the committee granted the green light for the construction project, the architects immediately began finalizing the blueprints for the new library.”
Origin
From the standard red-green colour scheme established for railway signals and later adopted for traffic lights. The association of the colour green with the permission to proceed provided the basis for the figurative expression.
Key words
Related idioms
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