Word.ws English Dictionary

over the river and through the woods

/ˈoʊ.vɚ ðə ˈɹɪvɚ ən(d)θɹu ðə wʊdz/

over the river and through the woods prepositional phrase: trying to achieve a particular task, often with difficulty.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (figuratively) Trying to achieve a particular task, often with difficulty.
  2. (figuratively) Lost.
  3. (figuratively) Having lost one's mind; insane.
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see over, the, river, and, through, the, woods.

Origin of over the river and through the woods

Originally based on a Thanksgiving poem written by Lydia Maria Child, this phrase was eventually turned into one of the many various Christmas carols and then soon developed its own meaning in the English lexicon. See the Wikipedia article for more information.

Questions about over the river and through the woods

What does over the river and through the woods mean?
Over the river and through the woods means trying to achieve a particular task, often with difficulty.
What part of speech is over the river and through the woods?
Over the river and through the woods is a prepositional phrase.
How do you pronounce over the river and through the woods?
Over the river and through the woods is pronounced /ˈoʊ.vɚ ðə ˈɹɪvɚ ən(d)θɹu ðə wʊdz/.

Words near over the river and through the woods in the dictionary

  1. over the long haul
  2. over the moon
  3. over the odds
  4. over the rainbow
  5. over the river
  6. over the river and through the woods
  7. over the top
  8. over the transom
  9. over the way
  10. over the wicket
  11. over the wire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: over the river and through the woods (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-over the river and through the woods.ogg.

Cite this entry: “over the river and through the woods.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/over_the_river_and_through_the_woods. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.