Word.ws English Dictionary

whistling past the graveyard

whistling past the graveyard is the present participle and gerund of whistle past the graveyard.

Meaning of whistle past the graveyard

Verb

whistle past the graveyard (third-person singular simple present whistles past the graveyard, present participle whistling past the graveyard, simple past and past participle whistled past the graveyard)

  1. (US, idiomatic) To attempt to stay cheerful in a dire situation; to proceed with a task, ignoring an upcoming hazard, hoping for a good outcome.
  2. (US, idiomatic) To enter a situation with little or no understanding of the possible consequences.

Questions about whistling past the graveyard

What is whistling past the graveyard the present participle and gerund of?
Whistling past the graveyard is the present participle and gerund of whistle past the graveyard.

Words near whistling past the graveyard in the dictionary

  1. whistling in the wind
  2. whistling kite
  3. whistling marmot
  4. whistling marmots
  5. whistling past
  6. whistling past the graveyard
  7. whistling shop
  8. whistling shops
  9. whistling swan
  10. whistling swans
  11. whistling up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whistling past the graveyard (page history and authors); whistle past the graveyard (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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Cite this entry: “whistling past the graveyard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whistling_past_the_graveyard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.