until the cows come home
until the cows come home phrase: for a very long period of time.
Phrase
until the cows come home
- For a very long period of time.
- Near-synonym: until one is blue in the face
- You can crank the engine until the cows come home, but it won’t start without fuel.
- Synonyms:
- until one is blue in the face
Synonyms of until the cows come home
Forms of until the cows come home
| alternative form | 'til the cows come home |
|---|---|
| alternative form | till the cows come home |
| alternative form (obsolete) | till the cow come home |
Origin of until the cows come home
Possibly from the fact that cattle let out to pasture may be only expected to return for milking the next morning; thus, for example, a party that goes on “until the cows come home” is a very long one. Alternatively, the phrase may have a Scottish origin, and may derive from the fact that cattle in the Highlands are put out to graze on the common where grass is plentiful. They stay out for months before scarcity of food causes them to find their way home in the autumn for feeding (a pattern of seasonal grazing called transhumance).
Words formed from until the cows come home
Questions about until the cows come home
- What does until the cows come home mean?
- Until the cows come home means for a very long period of time.
- What part of speech is until the cows come home?
- Until the cows come home is a phrase.
Words near until the cows come home in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: until the cows come home (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-until the cows come home.ogg.
Cite this entry: “until the cows come home.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/until_the_cows_come_home. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.