"month of Sundays" meaning in English

See month of Sundays in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌmʌnθ əv ˈsʌndeɪz/ [Received-Pronunciation], /-diz/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌmʌnθ əv ˈsʌnˌdeɪz/ [General-American], /-ˈsən-/ [General-American], /-diz/ [General-American] Audio: En-au-month of Sundays.ogg [Australia] Forms: months of Sundays [plural]
Etymology: Probably a reference to the passing of as many Sundays as there are days in a month, that is, between 28 and 31 weeks. Head templates: {{en-noun|months of Sundays|head=month of Sundays}} month of Sundays (plural months of Sundays)
  1. (idiomatic, informal) A very long time; a period regarded as too long. Tags: idiomatic, informal Categories (topical): Days of the week, Months, Time Synonyms: eternity, forever (english: both [[hyperbolic]]), week of Saturdays, week of Sundays [informal], eon Derived forms: never in a month of Sundays Translations (very long time): ikiaikoihin (Finnish), aikoihin (Finnish), dugo kao gladna godina [idiomatic] (Serbo-Croatian), más largo que un día sin pan (Spanish), más largo que el parto de la burra (Spanish)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for month of Sundays meaning in English (7.2kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Probably a reference to the passing of as many Sundays as there are days in a month, that is, between 28 and 31 weeks.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "months of Sundays",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "months of Sundays",
        "head": "month of Sundays"
      },
      "expansion": "month of Sundays (plural months of Sundays)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "month"
  ],
  "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"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with raw sortkeys",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Days of the week",
          "orig": "en:Days of the week",
          "parents": [
            "Periodic occurrences",
            "Time",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Months",
          "orig": "en:Months",
          "parents": [
            "Periodic occurrences",
            "Time",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Time",
          "orig": "en:Time",
          "parents": [
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "never in a month of Sundays"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It seems like it’s been a month of Sundays since we saw him last.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1759, Hamilton Murray [pseudonym], chapter X, in The Life and Real Adventures of Hamilton Murray. […], London: […] J. Burd, […], →OCLC, pages 120–121",
          "text": "[T]he captain had ordered his back to be anointed with ſome pickle, by way of preſerving ſome mortification, which increaſed his agony ſo intolerably, that he exhibited the various contorſions and wreathings of a rattle ſnake with ſurprizing velocity, to the no ſmall edification of the commander, who ſwore he ſhould dance to the ſecond part of the ſame tune, for a month of Sundays; ſtill repeating the word citation, which he could neither underſtand, nor digeſt.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1808, [George Colman the Younger], Presume Not beyond Measure: A Serio-comic Letter of Advice, Addressed to the Editors of All the Public Papers. […], London: […] J[ohn] Hatchard, […], →OCLC, page 14",
          "text": "Let the Sunday papers have their day: it is all they have; though it would require a month of Sundays to read all they publish upon it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, Hodgson Pratt, “On the Same [Art in Large Towns. In what Way Can the Influence of Art be Best Brought to Bear on the Masses of the Population in Large Towns?]”, in Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, section V (Art), page 595",
          "text": "From many quarters in London even a park is far distant, while we have months of Sundays which are wet and cold, when the dens where many people live would be preferred because affording shelter from the weather.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915 December, “Hodder and Stoughton’s Christmas List of Novels [advertisement]”, in The Bookman, volume XLIX, number 291, London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton […], →OCLC, page xv, column 4",
          "text": "The most vivacious, sparkling, entertaining piece of comedy you are likely to come across in a month of Sundays.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, Matt Braun, chapter 3, in El Paso, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, published July 1999, page 203",
          "text": "Just what do you hope to gain by badgering my people down here? They're not going to spill their guts to you in a month of Sundays.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001, David Michael Smith, “Balsam Fir”, in Stories from the Manger, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, page 31",
          "text": "[\"]But if I told you the rest of the truth, you wouldn't believe me anyway.\" / \"Try me.\" / \"Guarantee it, you won't,\" the man teases. \"Not in a month of Sundays.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 May, Alexandra Morton, chapter 3, in Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published June 2004, page 28",
          "text": "As I listened to the tapes over months of Sundays, it became clear that I would not work with [John] Lilly. I was more interested in the dolphins speaking to dolphins than in the attempts to teach them our language.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Lois Shepheard, “The Controversial Marriage”, in Black McIntosh to Gold, Carindale, Qld.: Glass House Books, page 187",
          "text": "Over the years, she'd visited the McIntoshes and also her daughters in Sydney but she had never, in a month of Sundays, dreamed she would live there herself.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, James Grissom, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, page 50",
          "text": "I [Tennessee Williams] told her [Eva Le Gallienne] I had, indeed, read the plays of Mr. [Henrik] Ibsen, had seen them in numerous productions, and found them to be quite like the act of eating a box of soap flakes, when they were not like two months of Sundays in church.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A very long time; a period regarded as too long."
      ],
      "id": "en-month_of_Sundays-en-noun-IK7pdTg3",
      "links": [
        [
          "long",
          "long#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "period",
          "period"
        ],
        [
          "regarded",
          "regard#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) A very long time; a period regarded as too long."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "eternity"
        },
        {
          "english": "both [[hyperbolic]]",
          "word": "forever"
        },
        {
          "word": "week of Saturdays"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "week of Sundays"
        },
        {
          "word": "eon"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "very long time",
          "word": "ikiaikoihin"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "very long time",
          "word": "aikoihin"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "very long time",
          "tags": [
            "idiomatic"
          ],
          "word": "dugo kao gladna godina"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "very long time",
          "word": "más largo que un día sin pan"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "very long time",
          "word": "más largo que el parto de la burra"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌmʌnθ əv ˈsʌndeɪz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-diz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌmʌnθ əv ˈsʌnˌdeɪz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈsən-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-diz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-month of Sundays.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ca/En-au-month_of_Sundays.ogg/En-au-month_of_Sundays.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/En-au-month_of_Sundays.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "month of Sundays"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "never in a month of Sundays"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Probably a reference to the passing of as many Sundays as there are days in a month, that is, between 28 and 31 weeks.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "months of Sundays",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "months of Sundays",
        "head": "month of Sundays"
      },
      "expansion": "month of Sundays (plural months of Sundays)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "month"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Pages with raw sortkeys",
        "en:Days of the week",
        "en:Months",
        "en:Time"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It seems like it’s been a month of Sundays since we saw him last.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1759, Hamilton Murray [pseudonym], chapter X, in The Life and Real Adventures of Hamilton Murray. […], London: […] J. Burd, […], →OCLC, pages 120–121",
          "text": "[T]he captain had ordered his back to be anointed with ſome pickle, by way of preſerving ſome mortification, which increaſed his agony ſo intolerably, that he exhibited the various contorſions and wreathings of a rattle ſnake with ſurprizing velocity, to the no ſmall edification of the commander, who ſwore he ſhould dance to the ſecond part of the ſame tune, for a month of Sundays; ſtill repeating the word citation, which he could neither underſtand, nor digeſt.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1808, [George Colman the Younger], Presume Not beyond Measure: A Serio-comic Letter of Advice, Addressed to the Editors of All the Public Papers. […], London: […] J[ohn] Hatchard, […], →OCLC, page 14",
          "text": "Let the Sunday papers have their day: it is all they have; though it would require a month of Sundays to read all they publish upon it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, Hodgson Pratt, “On the Same [Art in Large Towns. In what Way Can the Influence of Art be Best Brought to Bear on the Masses of the Population in Large Towns?]”, in Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, section V (Art), page 595",
          "text": "From many quarters in London even a park is far distant, while we have months of Sundays which are wet and cold, when the dens where many people live would be preferred because affording shelter from the weather.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915 December, “Hodder and Stoughton’s Christmas List of Novels [advertisement]”, in The Bookman, volume XLIX, number 291, London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton […], →OCLC, page xv, column 4",
          "text": "The most vivacious, sparkling, entertaining piece of comedy you are likely to come across in a month of Sundays.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, Matt Braun, chapter 3, in El Paso, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, published July 1999, page 203",
          "text": "Just what do you hope to gain by badgering my people down here? They're not going to spill their guts to you in a month of Sundays.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001, David Michael Smith, “Balsam Fir”, in Stories from the Manger, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, page 31",
          "text": "[\"]But if I told you the rest of the truth, you wouldn't believe me anyway.\" / \"Try me.\" / \"Guarantee it, you won't,\" the man teases. \"Not in a month of Sundays.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 May, Alexandra Morton, chapter 3, in Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published June 2004, page 28",
          "text": "As I listened to the tapes over months of Sundays, it became clear that I would not work with [John] Lilly. I was more interested in the dolphins speaking to dolphins than in the attempts to teach them our language.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Lois Shepheard, “The Controversial Marriage”, in Black McIntosh to Gold, Carindale, Qld.: Glass House Books, page 187",
          "text": "Over the years, she'd visited the McIntoshes and also her daughters in Sydney but she had never, in a month of Sundays, dreamed she would live there herself.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, James Grissom, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, page 50",
          "text": "I [Tennessee Williams] told her [Eva Le Gallienne] I had, indeed, read the plays of Mr. [Henrik] Ibsen, had seen them in numerous productions, and found them to be quite like the act of eating a box of soap flakes, when they were not like two months of Sundays in church.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A very long time; a period regarded as too long."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "long",
          "long#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "period",
          "period"
        ],
        [
          "regarded",
          "regard#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) A very long time; a period regarded as too long."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "eternity"
        },
        {
          "english": "both [[hyperbolic]]",
          "word": "forever"
        },
        {
          "word": "week of Saturdays"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "week of Sundays"
        },
        {
          "word": "eon"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌmʌnθ əv ˈsʌndeɪz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-diz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌmʌnθ əv ˈsʌnˌdeɪz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈsən-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-diz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-month of Sundays.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ca/En-au-month_of_Sundays.ogg/En-au-month_of_Sundays.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/En-au-month_of_Sundays.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "very long time",
      "word": "ikiaikoihin"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "very long time",
      "word": "aikoihin"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "very long time",
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "word": "dugo kao gladna godina"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "very long time",
      "word": "más largo que un día sin pan"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "very long time",
      "word": "más largo que el parto de la burra"
    }
  ],
  "word": "month of Sundays"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

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