forever and a day - 3 dictionary results
for⋅ev⋅er
[fawr-ev-er, fer-] 
–adverb
–noun
—Idiom
| 1. | without ever ending; eternally: to last forever. |
| 2. | continually; incessantly; always: He's forever complaining. |
| 3. | an endless or seemingly endless period of time: It took them forever to make up their minds. |
| 4. | forever and a day, eternally; always: They pledged to love each other forever and a day. |
Origin:
1660–70; orig. phrase for ever
1660–70; orig. phrase for ever
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Cite This Source
| forever and a day | |
adverb | |
| for a very long or seemingly endless time; "she took forever to write the paper"; "we had to wait forever and a day" [syn: forever] |
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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forever and a day
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For a very long time, as in He's been working on that book forever and a day. This hyperbolic expression probably originated as a corruption of the now obsolete for ever and ay. Shakespeare used it in The Taming of the Shrew (4:4): "Farewell for ever and a day." Today it is mainly a substitute for "very long time." [c. 1600]
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Incessantly, ceaselessly, as in Will this racket never end? It's been going on forever and a day. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
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