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• nine days' wonder
  nine days' wonder

  noun

  an event or thing that arouses considerable but short-lived interest or excitement.
• nine-days wonder
  nine-days wonder

  noun

  something that arouses great interest, but only for a short period

nine days' wonder

American  

noun

1. an event or thing that arouses considerable but short-lived interest or excitement.

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nine-days wonder British  

noun

1. something that arouses great interest, but only for a short period

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nine days' wonder Cultural  

1. Someone or something that is famous and celebrated for only a short time: “Last year the art critics praised Jonas as if he were a master, but he turned out to be a nine days' wonder.”

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Etymology

Origin of nine days' wonder

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nine days' wonder nine-days wonder

His mysterious disappearance had been a nine days’ wonder some ten years ago.

From The Wolves of God And Other Fey Stories by Algernon Blackwood

The nine days' wonder of her appearance had scarcely yet passed away when Mr. and Mrs. Wildair and Mr. Randall left B——, en route for the little "one-horse" town of Burnfield.

From The Actress' Daughter A Novel by May Agnes Fleming

She knows we wouldn't go round at school making a nine days' wonder of it.

From Ethel Morton and the Christmas Ship by Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke) Smith

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 John Bowling

It was a nine days' wonder in the neighbourhood, and the oddities of Hawthorn were held to be dangerous by the squires, while farmers cursed him for his liberality.

From The Life of Thomas Wanless, Peasant by Alexander Johnstone Wilson

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 Horace Kephart

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 Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

"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 Charles James Lever

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 Lydia Maria Francis Child

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 Charles James Lever