"Lombard Street to a China orange" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "* Lombard Street as a metonym for all the money in British banks. A China orange as something of trifling value.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "head": "Lombard Street to a China orange"
      },
      "expansion": "Lombard Street to a China orange (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1885 John Conroy Hutcheson On Board the Esmeralda (Chapter Fifteen. “A Little Unpleasantness.”)",
          "text": "As Jorrocks expressed it, in the event of such a catastrophe happening, “It was all Lombard Street to a China orange we’d lose the number of our mess and sarve as food for fishes!”"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Burford Delannoy, chapter XXIII, in Prince Charlie",
          "text": "The odds, too, are against a drunkard's reformation; all Lombard Street to a China orange.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1907 Herbert M. Vaughan, The Naples Riviera (Chapter II \"The Vesuvian Shore and Monte Sant' Angelo\")",
          "text": "Mora has been a favourite recreation with these people almost from their cradles, and he would be a bold man indeed who would venture to challenge a Torrese at this game, for the native's skill and experience are almost bound to tell eventually in his favour, and the odds are \"Lombard Street to a China orange\" against the outside player."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1937, Sir Malcolm Campbell, The Roads and the Problem of their Safety, London: Hutchinson, page 151",
          "text": "It looked the proverbial Lombard Street to a china orange that he must be run down and killed. By a superlatively skilful piece of driving, the bus-driver just managed to avoid him[.]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "very long odds (in favour or against an outcome)"
      ],
      "id": "en-Lombard_Street_to_a_China_orange-en-noun-C6jSAlpu",
      "links": [
        [
          "long odds",
          "long odds"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, dated) very long odds (in favour or against an outcome)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "all Lombard Street to a China orange"
        },
        {
          "word": "all Lombard Street to a china orange"
        },
        {
          "word": "Lombard-street to a China orange"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "figuratively",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Lombard Street to a China orange"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "* Lombard Street as a metonym for all the money in British banks. A China orange as something of trifling value.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "head": "Lombard Street to a China orange"
      },
      "expansion": "Lombard Street to a China orange (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1885 John Conroy Hutcheson On Board the Esmeralda (Chapter Fifteen. “A Little Unpleasantness.”)",
          "text": "As Jorrocks expressed it, in the event of such a catastrophe happening, “It was all Lombard Street to a China orange we’d lose the number of our mess and sarve as food for fishes!”"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Burford Delannoy, chapter XXIII, in Prince Charlie",
          "text": "The odds, too, are against a drunkard's reformation; all Lombard Street to a China orange.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1907 Herbert M. Vaughan, The Naples Riviera (Chapter II \"The Vesuvian Shore and Monte Sant' Angelo\")",
          "text": "Mora has been a favourite recreation with these people almost from their cradles, and he would be a bold man indeed who would venture to challenge a Torrese at this game, for the native's skill and experience are almost bound to tell eventually in his favour, and the odds are \"Lombard Street to a China orange\" against the outside player."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1937, Sir Malcolm Campbell, The Roads and the Problem of their Safety, London: Hutchinson, page 151",
          "text": "It looked the proverbial Lombard Street to a china orange that he must be run down and killed. By a superlatively skilful piece of driving, the bus-driver just managed to avoid him[.]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "very long odds (in favour or against an outcome)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "long odds",
          "long odds"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, dated) very long odds (in favour or against an outcome)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "figuratively",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "all Lombard Street to a China orange"
    },
    {
      "word": "all Lombard Street to a china orange"
    },
    {
      "word": "Lombard-street to a China orange"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Lombard Street to a China orange"
}