to whistle for a raise

9.8

Expect to get something that is very unlikely, for example more pay

idiom

Informal

: esperar un aumento

He finally understood he'd have to whistle for a raise despite all his extra hours.

Examples

If you think you'll get a bonus, you're just whistling for a raise.
Don't whistle for a raise if you haven't met your targets!
After the budget cuts, employees can just whistle for a raise this year.
If you don't improve your performance, you may as well whistle for a raise.
With the company struggling financially, you might as well whistle for a raise this year.
After missing key deadlines, you can expect to whistle for a raise if you ask for one.
Given the current economic climate, many employees are simply whistling for a raise.

Synonyms

to get one's hopes up

vsto whistle for a raise

Informal

34 5.6

To become too excited about something that might not happen

expects an outcome that is very unlikely despite making efforts

How Likely

to expect

∞ 1.0

to whistle for a raise

Informal

9.8

don't hold your breath

Informal

1 8.1

Surface Forms

whistle for a raise infinitive

whistled for a raise past

whistled for a raise past participle

whistling for a raise present participle

whistles for a raise third person singular

Morphology

whistle + for + a + raise

The meaning 'to expect something very unlikely (a raise)' cannot be predicted from the literal parts: 'whistle' (to make a sound), 'for' (indicating purpose), and 'raise' (pay increase). This is an informal idiom where 'whistle for' functions metaphorically and is not a transparent, cross-linguistic composition, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would unlikely infer the intended sense.

Etymology

One popular story says the phrase whistle for a raise comes from the picture of someone whistling for attention with a whistle, but no one answers. So, saying you can whistle for a raise means 'you are very unlikely to get the raise', even if you try.