forever and a day
Idioms-
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]
-
Incessantly, ceaselessly, as in Will this racket never end? It's been going on forever and a day . [ Colloquial ; first half of 1900s]
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.