to paint the town red
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
To have a gay, noisy time; to cause some disturbance in town by having a noisy spree. Possibly from the fre- quent firing of towns by Indians on the war- path.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to paint the town red” mean?
To have a gay, noisy time; to cause some disturbance in town by having a noisy spree. Possibly from the fre- quent firing of towns by Indians on the war- path.
Is “to paint the town red” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.