First recorded in 1585–95
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A few of the smaller chieftains, like this Saxon Oswald, held their ground and fought it out; but it was a nine days' wonder, and nothing more.
From The Last of the Vikings by Bowling, John
But Kenyon and Bramsdean knew that the achievement would be but a nine days' wonder.
From The Airship "Golden Hind" by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
We do not, of course, allude to magnificent entertainments, such as are celebrated in the newspapers, and become a nine days' wonder; and are cited as costing, not hundreds, but thousands of dollars.
From The Ladies' Guide to True Politeness and Perfect Manners or, Miss Leslie's Behaviour Book by Leslie, Eliza
The mysterious end of the mysterious stranger had been very much of a nine days’ wonder.
From The Heath Hover Mystery by Mitford, Bertram
She needn't marry out of pique because of a nine days' wonder like that.
From Vision House by Williamson, A. M. (Alice Muriel)
As it was, I turned up rather abruptly in a backwoods settlement where the “furriner” was more than a nine-days wonder.
From Our Southern Highlanders by Kephart, Horace
He may make me a nine-days wonder in the newspapers and a town talk, and never reap the least advantage from it.
From The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly by Lever, Charles James
A few days would bring them to that, and the nine-days wonder run its course and lose its interest.
From J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3 by Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
To the public, the fascinating prima donna, who had rushed up from the horizon like a brilliant rocket, and disappeared as suddenly, was only a nine-days wonder.
From A Romance of the Republic by Child, Lydia Maria Francis
"Only what I said,—that Major Stapylton may furnish the town with a nine-days wonder, vice Captain Duff Brown, forgotten."
From Barrington Volume II (of II) by Lever, Charles James
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.
