when pigs fly

Idioms & Phrases

when pigs fly

Never, as in Sure he'll pay for the drinkswhen pigs fly. Equating the flight of pigs with something impossible dates from the early 1600s, when several writers alleged that pigs fly with their tails forward. The idiom is also put as pigs may fly.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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