"donkey's years" meaning in English

See donkey's years in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-donkey's years.ogg
Etymology: 1876 or earlier. Possibly chosen because donkeys can be long-lived animals. Despite the similarity, pre-dates and likely not directly related to donkey's ears, a less frequently used rhyming slang term for years. Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=donkey's years}} donkey's years pl (plural only)
  1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) A long time, years and years. Wikipedia link: rhyming slang Tags: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, idiomatic, plural, plural-only Synonyms: donkeys' years

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "1876 or earlier. Possibly chosen because donkeys can be long-lived animals. Despite the similarity, pre-dates and likely not directly related to donkey's ears, a less frequently used rhyming slang term for years.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "donkey's years"
      },
      "expansion": "donkey's years pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Commonwealth English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pluralia tantum",
          "parents": [
            "Pluralia tantum",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Irish English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876, The Salisbury Times",
          "text": "Didn't you ask him how long it had been in his possession?\nI can't recollect that. I might have done so.\nDidn't he say for years and years and donkey's years?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1923, The Bridgeport Telegram:",
          "text": "With a heavy make-up, you’ll be the cutest vamp I’ve seen in donkey’s years.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "id": "en-donkey's_years-en-noun-VObR5FFR",
      "links": [
        [
          "years and years",
          "years and years"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "donkeys' years"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "Ireland",
        "UK",
        "idiomatic",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "rhyming slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-donkey's years.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/29/En-au-donkey%27s_years.ogg/En-au-donkey%27s_years.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/En-au-donkey%27s_years.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "donkey's years"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "1876 or earlier. Possibly chosen because donkeys can be long-lived animals. Despite the similarity, pre-dates and likely not directly related to donkey's ears, a less frequently used rhyming slang term for years.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "donkey's years"
      },
      "expansion": "donkey's years pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "Commonwealth English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English pluralia tantum",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Irish English",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876, The Salisbury Times",
          "text": "Didn't you ask him how long it had been in his possession?\nI can't recollect that. I might have done so.\nDidn't he say for years and years and donkey's years?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1923, The Bridgeport Telegram:",
          "text": "With a heavy make-up, you’ll be the cutest vamp I’ve seen in donkey’s years.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "years and years",
          "years and years"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "Ireland",
        "UK",
        "idiomatic",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "rhyming slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-donkey's years.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/29/En-au-donkey%27s_years.ogg/En-au-donkey%27s_years.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/En-au-donkey%27s_years.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "donkeys' years"
    }
  ],
  "word": "donkey's years"
}

Download raw JSONL data for donkey's years meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.