until the cows come home

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play

Possibly from the fact that cattle let out to pasture may be only expected to return for milking the next morning; thus, for example, a party that goes on “until the cows come home” is a very long one. Alternatively, the phrase may have a Scottish origin, and may derive from the fact that cattle in the Highlands are put out to graze on the common where grass is plentiful. They stay out for months before scarcity of food causes them to find their way home in the autumn for feeding (a pattern of seasonal grazing called transhumance).

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Dutch: tot sint-juttemis — For a very long time
• Finnish: maailman tappiin asti — For a very long time
• French: aussi longtemps qu'on veut — For a very long time
• German: bis zum Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag — For a very long time
• Hungarian: ítéletnapig — For a very long time
• Hungarian: sohanapjáig — For a very long time
• Icelandic: fram í rauðan dauðann — For a very long time
• Irish: go brách na bréithe — For a very long time
• Italian: fino a domani — For a very long time
• Italian: tutto il giorno — For a very long time
• Latin: ad calendas graecas — For a very long time
• Māori: ki konā — For a very long time
• Polish: długo — For a very long time
• Polish: ile wlezie — For a very long time
• Polish: do usranej śmierci — For a very long time
• Turkish: eşek sudan gelene kadar — For a very long time