Facial Color

Facial Color

 

See Also: BLUSHES, COLOR, PALLOR, RED, WHITE

1. A face like a raw steak —John Dos Passos
2. An extremely florid face, as if his blood pressure was about to pop —Peter Meinke
3. A bluish pallor had spread like a shadow over his face —Walter De La Mare
4. Carried a ruddy stain on either cheek, like a ripe apple —Robert Louis Stevenson
5. Cheeks and bunchy lips as red as they would have been if she had fallen into a pot of jam —Frank Swinnerton
6. Coloring as natural as a bird’s egg or a leaf —Frank Tuohy
7. Coloring … so like the bloom of a ripe fruit, that nature in her seemed to have rivalled art —Italo Svevo
8. The color spread across his face like a bush fire —Mike Fredman
9. Face … a curious, flat color, like the inside of a raw potato —Susan Hill
10. A face as white and almost as smooth as a bar of soap —Scott Spencer
11. Face dark with furious blood, dark as a plum —Guy Vanderhaeghe

    A variation by Gloria Norris: “Face … turned purple as a plum.”

12. Face … dull red, as if baked by the heat of blazing towns —Stephen French Whitman
13. Face glows, spotty, like there’s a tiny pink bulb burning behind each cheek —Sharon Sheehe Stark
14. (Marley’s) face … had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar —Charles Dickens
15. Face like a lobster —Robert Louis Stevenson
16. Face like a raw side of beef —Robert Campbell
17. Face … like a strawberry —Mary Hedin

    In Hedin’s short story, The Secret, the woman with the strawberry-like face had been bending over a stove.

18. (Passion has made his) face like pale ivory —Oscar Wilde
19. Face pale and lined like a map —Hugh Walpole
20. Face … pale as death and far more ghastly —Nathaniel Hawthorne
21. A face … puffy and sallow, the color of old piano keys —William Boyd

    In the novel, An Ice-Cream War, the author continues as follows: “As if he were just recovering from an illness or about to be seriously afflicted by one.”

22. Face..red as a parrot’s —Dame Edith Sitwell
23. Face … ruddy, flushed with blood, like a slaughterer’s —Isaac Bashevis Singer
24. Face shone red as a cock’s comb —Rita Mae Brown
25. Faces red as steak —Sharon Olds
26. Faces stained by the cool night like wine —Dame Edith Sitwell
27. Faces white like paste —Hugh Walpole
28. Face the color and texture of kangaroo hide —Frank Ross
29. Face … the color of cat’s meat —James Thurber
30. Face turned to a dull white, like bread dough —Anon
31. Face went gray, like the mortar in the trough —Henry Van Dyke
32. Face yellow like ancient paper —Arthur A. Cohen
33. Great blushing face, like a Dutch cheese —Jilly Cooper
34. Her color had been pared away, like you pare an apple —Donald McCaig
35. Her color was high, as though she had been sitting near a fire —Geoffrey Wolff
36. Her face was … white-powdered like a marshmallow —Frank Tuohy
37. A medium dark face, like antique gold under a black light —Loren D. Estleman
38. Tanned as a hound’s tooth —Robert Traver
39. Two spots of rouge like paper discs pasted on her cheekbones —William Faulkner
40. Unnaturally red cheeks like varnished apples —Edith Wharton

Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.