days on end
- idiom
- Snowstorms kept blowing so hard for 20 days on end that all the traffic in these areas stopped.
Train workers are staying home with nothing to do for days on end.
- Train workers are staying home with nothing to do for days on end.
- To me, that's far less of an issue than someone who doesn't message you for days on end.
- And then all hell broke loose in Washington and I was like glued to the television for days on end, doom scrolling.
- Some have been hiding in swamps and out in the countryside for days on end.
- Can I go camp with you in the middle of the woods for days on end?
- And it's not something you want to be dealing with for like days on end.
- He was curing the cattle away over out Eastover the marsh in the cold for days on end, and he wore himself out.
- Elon Musk locks himself in his factory and for days on end and builds shit.
Examples
-
As time went on, Mama grew sadder and withdrew from us, sometimes barely speaking for days on end.
Fiction book (1995) -
What happens if it's rainy there for days on end, as can happen in the winter?
Blog text (28) -
The news media feature nothing else for days on end.
Academic text (1991) -
I could watch it for days on end.
Fiction book (1995) -
There were times I'd have to stay there for days on end.
-
I don't speak to people for days on end.
-
When the rain continued to fall for days on end, concern that the chicks would starve caused her to lose her appetite.
Fiction book (1996) -
For days on end, they tried to get visas, but quotas had been filled, borders closed.
-
For days on end, she lay in bed, huddled under the thick winter quilt, and slept.
Fiction book (1998) -
After the storm passed, we were stranded without power for days on end.
Synonyms
Happens again and again for many days in a row
Happens every day for a long time in the same boring way
Every day for a long time without any change
Happening all day and all night without stopping
Happening all day and night without stopping
Antonyms
How Long
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines the transparent time noun 'days' with the idiomatic sequence 'on end' (meaning continuously). A B1 learner who knows the words can infer it relates to duration, but the specific sense 'many consecutive days without interruption' relies on the idiomatic meaning of 'on end', so it is only partially predictable.
Etymology
The phrase days on end creates the image of days lined up on end, one after another with no break. So it means 'many days in a row'.