Word.ws English Dictionary

like turkeys voting for Christmas

Syllables: like turk·eys vot·ing for Christ·masUK/laɪk ˌtɜːkiz ˈvəʊtɪŋ fə ˈkɹɪsməs/US/laɪk ˌtɝkiz ˈvoʊtɪŋ fɚ ˈkɹɪsməs/

like turkeys voting for Christmas phrase: self-defeating; serving to bring about a situation detrimental to the performer of the action.

Phrase

like turkeys voting for Christmas

  1. (UK, humorous, simile) Self-defeating; serving to bring about a situation detrimental to the performer of the action.
    • The next morning [14 December 1977] the Liberals held a two-and-a-half meeting at which Steel let them have their head. Only two MPs, Howells and Johnston, said they were willing to continue the Pact. The opponents were delighted. […] ‘Us voting for the Pact is like a turkey voting for Christmas’...[1977 December 14, Alistair Michie, Simon Hoggart, “The Wispy Beards Strike Back”, in The Pact: The Inside Story of the Lib-Lab Government, 1977–8, London: Quartet Books, published 1978, →ISBN, page...
    • The minority parties have walked into a trap. If they win, there will be a general election. I am told that the current joke going around the House is that it is the first time in recorded history that turkeys have been known to vote for an early Christmas.[1979 March 28, James Callaghan, Prime Minister, “Her Majesty’s Government (Opposition Motion)”, in House of Commons Debates (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 965, London: Parliament...

Examples of like turkeys voting for Christmas in a sentence

  • Many of the responses to proposals, particularly regarding deregulation, were unsupported: it would have been like turkeys voting for Christmas in some respects.1998, Philip Allmendinger, Huw Thomas, “Conclusions”, in Philip Allmendinger, Huw Thomas, editors, Urban Planning and the British New...
  • Bear in mind, however, that for some purchasing people, deciding to use an agent is a little like turkeys voting for Christmas.2001, Trevor Kitching, “The Internet – the New Frontier for Scam Merchants”, in Purchasing Scams and How to Avoid Them, Aldershot...

Synonyms of like turkeys voting for Christmas

Forms of like turkeys voting for Christmas

alternative forma turkey voting for Christmas

Origin of like turkeys voting for Christmas

Because turkeys are commonly eaten at Christmas, turkeys voting for (an early) Christmas would be hastening their own death. The phrase is thought to have been coined by the British Liberal Party politician David Penhaligon (1944–1986) who used it to express opposition to the 1977 Lib–Lab pact. It was popularized by the British Prime Minister James Callaghan (1912–2005) who used it in the House of Commons in March 1979 when his Labour Party lost a vote of no confidence: see the 1977 and 1979 quotations.

Words that rhyme with like turkeys voting for Christmas

Questions about like turkeys voting for Christmas

What does like turkeys voting for Christmas mean?
Like turkeys voting for Christmas means self-defeating; serving to bring about a situation detrimental to the performer of the action.
How do you use like turkeys voting for Christmas in a sentence?
Many of the responses to proposals, particularly regarding deregulation, were unsupported: it would have been like turkeys voting for Christmas in some respects.
What part of speech is like turkeys voting for Christmas?
Like turkeys voting for Christmas is a phrase.
How do you pronounce like turkeys voting for Christmas?
Like turkeys voting for Christmas is pronounced /laɪk ˌtɜːkiz ˈvəʊtɪŋ fə ˈkɹɪsməs/ (UK).

Words near like turkeys voting for Christmas in the dictionary

  1. like there's no tomorrow
  2. like throwing a hot dog down a hallway
  3. like throwing a sausage down a hallway
  4. like to
  5. like turkeys voting for an early Christmas
  6. like turkeys voting for Christmas
  7. like two peas in a pod
  8. like unto
  9. like water
  10. like water off a duck's back
  11. like white on rice

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: like turkeys voting for Christmas (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-like turkeys voting for Christmas.ogg.

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