Script (guión): Idioms, ‘green around the gills’. If you are green around the gills, it means you look ill. Two friends of mine had an eating competition to see how many eggs they could eat, how many boiled eggs. Phil got to twenty eggs within five minutes but started to look green around the gills, he only managed two more eggs and had to stop. Whereas my other friend Dave managed to eat 30 eggs no problem. He didn't even look bothered.