Word.ws English Dictionary

like painting the Forth Bridge

like painting the Forth Bridge prepositional phrase: never-ending; said of a task which will never be completed due to the perpetual cycle of having to recommence as soon as one has reached the end, or of efforts that are in vain because of this.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK) Never-ending; said of a task which will never be completed due to the perpetual cycle of having to recommence as soon as one has reached the end, or of efforts that are in vain because of this.
    • Where only an overview has been given, I hope that the book will provide a useful springboard and the appropriate legal advice is sought. The revision has been rather like painting the Forth Bridge and whilst every effort has been made to bring the law as up to date as possible, events often...2014, Stephanie Owen, J. R. Lewis, Law for the Construction Industry, page viii
    • Weeding can feel like painting the Forth Bridge—by the time you finish, it’s time to start again.2017 April 29, Alys Fowler, “How to win the war on weeds”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    Sisyphean

Synonyms of like painting the Forth Bridge

Origin of like painting the Forth Bridge

The bridge across the Firth of Forth was in a continuous state of being painted (until finished in 2011, 122 years after its completion): (owing to its large size) as soon as one end was reached, it was time to begin all over again.

Questions about like painting the Forth Bridge

What does like painting the Forth Bridge mean?
Like painting the Forth Bridge means never-ending; said of a task which will never be completed due to the perpetual cycle of having to recommence as soon as one has reached the end, or of efforts that are in vain because of this.
What part of speech is like painting the Forth Bridge?
Like painting the Forth Bridge is a prepositional phrase.

Words near like painting the Forth Bridge in the dictionary

  1. like one needs a hole in the head
  2. like one o'clock
  3. like one o'clock half struck
  4. like one owns the place
  5. like one's life depended on it
  6. like painting the Forth Bridge
  7. like peas and carrots
  8. like peas in a pod
  9. like pigs in clover
  10. like rats from a sinking ship
  11. like rats in a sack

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: like painting the Forth Bridge (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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