Click here to see the entire vocabulary list
Yomi
めのいろをかえる
Rōmaji
me no iro o kaeru
Type
idiom
Literal Meaning
change one’s eye colour
Meaning
change one’s attitude greatly and start showing one’s strong interest/passion/seriousness
Additional Info
It also means “become very angry/surprised”, but it’s less common
Example
息子に「次のテストで満点を取ったら3万円やる」と言ったら、目の色を変えて真剣に勉強し始めた
I said to my son “If you get full marks on the next exam, I’ll give you 30k yen”, and then he changed his attitude greatly and started studying seriously.