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till the cows come home

Cultural  

  1. For a long time: “Mr. Rowland said that as far as he was concerned, the delinquent students could stay there washing blackboards till the cows came home.”

till the cows come home Idioms  

  1. Also, when the cows come home. For a long time, as in You can keep asking till the cows come home, but you still may not go bungee-jumping. This term alludes to when the cows return to the barn for milking. [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"We can talk till the cows come home, but actually we want to see change happen, and we're just not seeing that happen."

From BBC

“We can do genealogy research till the cows come home, but without DNA, we would never know that information,” Comer says.

From Science Magazine

Like many Americans long removed from pastoral life, I still use its idioms, from “Hold your horses” and “stubborn as a mule” to “till the cows come home.”

From Seattle Times

That they will watch till the cows come home.

From Los Angeles Times

There’s no need to feel guilty about this plumbing pleasure: A farmer sink can help you with kitchen chores till the cows come home!

From Seattle Times

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.