Word.ws English Dictionary

gone by lunchtime

gone by lunchtime phrase: removed or cancelled right away.

Phrase

gone by lunchtime

  1. Removed or cancelled right away.
    • Foreign policy could not remain with Lockwood Smith who told visiting US Senators that New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy would be "gone by lunchtime."2017 April 8, Audrey Young, “Long list of people glad to see Murray McCully gone”, in New Zealand Herald
    • It's a meaningless race to the bottom of populist politics that undermines the complexity of tackling poverty as an endemic, intergenerational issue; that reduces it to something comfortably dealt with in the space of an electoral cycle – gone by lunchtime, perhaps?2017 September 6, “Editorial: Poor are the biggest losers in high-stakes political game”, in The Dominion Post

Examples of gone by lunchtime in a sentence

  • And the BBC's own Nicky Campbell has queried if the pair will be "gone by lunchtime" following allegations from the comedian's ex-girlfriend Rebecca Humphries.2018 October 9, “Katya Jones and Seann Walsh to be booted off Strictly by lunchtime, claims BBC presenter”, in Irish Mirror:
  • I'll tell you what the Aussies would do - this guy would be gone by lunchtime.2018 October 29, Dan Satherley, “Immigrant drug lord Karel Sroubek should be 'gone by lunchtime' - Simon Bridges”, in Newshub:
  • Kaikoura District Council chief executive Stuart Grant said the group wanted “ECan gone by lunchtime.2018 December 12, David Williams, “What Canterbury's water-bottling case tells us”, in Newsroom:

Origin of gone by lunchtime

A reference to a sudden termination of employment, when an employee is told to pack up their belongings and be "gone by lunchtime".

Questions about gone by lunchtime

What does gone by lunchtime mean?
Gone by lunchtime means removed or cancelled right away.
How do you use gone by lunchtime in a sentence?
And the BBC's own Nicky Campbell has queried if the pair will be "gone by lunchtime" following allegations from the comedian's ex-girlfriend Rebecca Humphries.
What part of speech is gone by lunchtime?
Gone by lunchtime is a phrase.

Words near gone by lunchtime in the dictionary

  1. gone bonkers
  2. gone both ways
  3. gone brrr
  4. gone bust
  5. gone by
  6. gone by lunchtime
  7. gone by the board
  8. gone by the name of
  9. gone by the wayside
  10. gone bye-bye
  11. gone cahoots

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gone by lunchtime (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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