kingdom come
12
8.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
el más allá
- They cared not if dogs chased them to kingdom come.
- blown to kingdom come
- blasted to kingdom come
- here until kingdom come
Examples
-
You want to get blown to kingdom come?
-
Let him sit and waste away till kingdom come.
Fiction book (1995) -
You'll blow us to kingdom come!
-
I'll take that Gumby and I'll knock him from here to kingdom come.
-
The air is thick with heat, and I am sure a burning boulder will fall from the sky and knock me to kingdom come.
Fiction book (2002) -
Well, it's better than a one-way trip to kingdom come, isn't it?
-
George Patton would have whupped ass 'til kingdom come.
Fiction book (1995) -
Cruz felt it was her moral obligation, being the most financially liquid of the people there, to shoulder my dues till the end of the month or kingdom come, whichever occurred first.
Fiction book (1995) -
Then, in 1981, when Saddam's precious Osirak 1 and 2 plants were about to start up, Israeli fighter-bombers swept in and blew the lot to kingdom come.
Fiction book (1994) -
We'll be waiting for his response until kingdom come.
Synonyms
27
3.6
The time that comes after now
11
9.4
Says that it is sent far away or completely destroyed
For a very long time, possibly forever
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'kingdom come' is a conventional, largely biblical idiom referring to the coming of God's kingdom / the end of time or afterlife; its meaning depends on cultural/religious background rather than simple composition. A B1 learner who knows 'kingdom' and 'come' would not reliably derive this idiomatic, somewhat archaic sense from the literal words, so it is not transparent.
Etymology
Kingdom come probably comes from an old Christian prayer that said 'thy kingdom come', meaning the 'afterlife' or a future world. One popular story says that to send someone to kingdom come meant sending them to that next world or destroying them, so today it often means 'to die' or be ruined completely.