until the cows come home
For a very long period of timeFor a very long period of time.
» I'll stay up until Tom gets home.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(idiomatic)For a very long period of time.
Near-synonym: until one is blue in the face
You can crank the engine until the cows come home, but it won’t start without fuel.
bis zum Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag
Examples
68 sentencesI'll stay up until Tom gets home.
Don't start eating until I get home.
Tom didn't eat anything until he got home.
I didn't eat anything until I got home.
I won't do that until I get home.
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
Possibly from the fact that cattle let out to pasture may be only expected to return for mPossibly from the fact that cattle let out to pasture may be only expected to return for milking the next morning; thus, for example, a party that goes on “until the cows come home” is a very long one.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Synonyms
1 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.