a month of Sundays
1
9.8
- idiom
- Archaic
:
una eternidad
- Life was hard back then, and a good laugh was worth a month of Sundays.
- take a month of Sundays
Examples
-
It will take me a month of Sundays to digest this piffle.
Fiction book (1990) -
"It has been a month of Sundays since you set foot in this house, I declare." "I was hoping to see Ms. Schaeber," he said, taking a deep draught of the lemonade.
Fiction book (1992) -
Goodness, after our grandchildren used to leave, we were pooped for a month of Sundays.
Fiction book (1999) -
My father ain't worked a good month of Sundays in twenty-five years, and you know the biggest thing he ever did?
Fiction book (1992) -
I haven't wrung a chicken's neck in a month of Sundays.
Fiction book (1990) -
It would take S. Holmes and a regiment of the Baker Street Irregulars a month of Sundays to check out all those names and addresses.
Fiction book (1992) -
"It has been a month of Sundays since you set foot in this house, I declare." "I was hoping to see Ms. Schaeber," he said, taking a deep draught of the lemonade.
Fiction book (1992) -
Now we know surely could never in a month of Sundays have guessed who that woman is, were it not that she's identified by an inscription beneath her feet.
-
David Brooks, Tom Friedman, and Andy Sullivan couldn't do half as well locked up in their summer cottages in the Hamptons for a month of Sundays, and they are fucking millionaires.
Blog text (4) -
It feels like it's going to take a month of Sundays to finish this project.
Synonyms
A very long time that seems to last forever
Antonyms
How Long
12
1.4
- Archaic
1
9.8
332
7.7
∞
1.0
53
2.9
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
a + month + of + Sundays
Although the components 'month' and 'Sundays' both name time units, their combination does not transparently yield the sense 'an extremely long period'; a B1 learner who knows the words is unlikely to infer the intensified, idiomatic meaning from the literal parts. The phrase is idiomatic with a historical/coined usage rather than a productive compositional pattern, so its meaning is unpredictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
A month of Sundays paints the picture of many Sundays in a row. One popular story says people imagined a whole month made of quiet Sundays, days without work, so a month of Sundays came to mean 'a very long time'.