shut up and color v. phr. mind one’s own business, keep one’s head down, do as one is told. Editorial Note: Most often used as a dismissive command toward someone perceived to be uninformed, inexperienced, or unimportant. The 1980 citation is probably a nonce usage, as the phrase is used there to talk about a completely literal act of keeping quiet and coloring. Etymological Note: Imitates a reprimand that might be given to a child who speaks when not spoken to. The meaning of “color” that is relevant here is “to use crayons to draw a picture or fill in the pages of a coloring book.” (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Is it just desserts or just deserts? Gina from Harvest, Alabama, says that when using this phrase, she’d always pictured dessert, as in “the treat someone deserves,” but the correct term is indeed just deserts. This particular desert isn’t an arid...
After Diana from Williamsburg, Virginia, scraped the front of her leg on a chair, she fretted to her grown daughters she had barked her shin. Neither daughter had ever heard the expression. This kind of bark refers not to what a dog does, but to...