Word.ws English Dictionary

whistle jigs to a milestone

whistle jigs to a milestone verb: to do something utterly futile or ineffective.

Verb

whistle jigs to a milestone (third-person singular simple present whistles jigs to a milestone, present participle whistling jigs to a milestone, simple past and past participle whistled jigs to a milestone)

  1. (Ireland) To do something utterly futile or ineffective.
    • “Gentlemen, both!” I answered, moderating them again as I had moderated them once already. “In the matter of the moss rose there is a great deal to be said on both sides!” I might as well (as the Irish say) have whistled jigs to a milestone. Away they went together, fighting the battle of the roses...1868, Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
    • I won't be arguin' any more wid you, for I see plainly that I might as well be whistlin' jigs to a milestone as to be pladin' wid you. But I'll say wan thing to you […]1880, Margaret W. Brew, The Burtons of Dunroe (volume 1, page 130)

Forms of whistle jigs to a milestone

third-person singular presentwhistles jigs to a milestone
present participlewhistling jigs to a milestone
past participlewhistled jigs to a milestone
pastwhistled jigs to a milestone

Questions about whistle jigs to a milestone

What does whistle jigs to a milestone mean?
Whistle jigs to a milestone means to do something utterly futile or ineffective.
What part of speech is whistle jigs to a milestone?
Whistle jigs to a milestone is a verb.
What is the past tense of whistle jigs to a milestone?
The past tense of whistle jigs to a milestone is whistled jigs to a milestone.

Words near whistle jigs to a milestone in the dictionary

  1. whistle down the wind
  2. whistle for
  3. whistle graph
  4. whistle in the dark
  5. whistle in the wind
  6. whistle jigs to a milestone
  7. whistle note
  8. whistle notes
  9. whistle past
  10. whistle past the graveyard
  11. whistle pig

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whistle jigs to a milestone (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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