when pigs fly
advEtymology Referencing the fact that pigs do not have wings and cannot fly.
1
Idiomatic Never.
- "You know, my friend," said Mongan, "that I can't get Duv Laca back unless the King of Leinster asks me to take her back, for a bargain is a bargain." "That will happen when pigs fly," said mac an Dáv, "and," said he, "I did not make any bargain with any king that is in the world."1920, James Stephens, Irish Fairy Tales, Mongan's Frenzy:
- Related terms
- pigs might fly, camel through the eye of a needle, a cold day in Hell, ad kalendas Graecas, first of never, never in a month of Sundays, snowball's chance in hell, when Hell freezes over