from pillar to post

from pillar to post

From place to place. A reference to an ancient form of tennis, which was played in an enclosed court with pillars and posts off of which the ball could be bounced. We've been going from pillar to post for the past five years. Can't we finally settle down here? They've been sending me from pillar to post looking for the replacement part, but nowhere seems to have it in stock. My ex-husband and I never want our kids to feel as though they're just being knocked from pillar to post, so we've agreed to share custody for a month at a time.

See also: pillar, post, to

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

from pillar to post

Fig. from one place to a series of other places; (figuratively) from person to person, as with gossip. My father was in the army, and we moved from pillar to post year after year. After I told one person my secret, it went quickly from pillar to post.

See also: pillar, post, to

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

from pillar to post

From one thing or place to another, hither and thither. For example, After Kevin joined the Air Force, the family kept moving from pillar to post. This expression began life in the early 1400s as from post to pillar, an order no longer used, and is thought to allude to the banging about of a ball in the game of court tennis.

See also: pillar, post, to

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

from pillar to post

mainly BRITISH

If someone is moved from pillar to post, they are moved repeatedly from one place or position to another. We are exhausted after a weekend of being shoved from pillar to post. I didn't want the children pushed from pillar to post. Note: This expression comes from an early form of tennis that was played indoors. Players often played shots back and forth across the court, from the posts supporting the net to the pillars at the back of the court.

See also: pillar, post, to

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

from pillar to post

from one place to another in an unceremonious or fruitless manner.

This expression may have developed with reference to the rebounding of a ball in a real-tennis court. It has been in use in this form since the mid 16th century, though its earlier form, from post to pillar , dates back to the early 15th century.

2002 Independent There will be ‘a single door to knock on’ so people with a point to make are not passed endlessly from pillar to post.

See also: pillar, post, to

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

from pillar to post

From one place to another; hither and thither.

See also: pillar, post, to

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

from pillar to post

From one place or thing to another; hither and yon. This expression, which originally (fifteenth century) was from post to pillar, is believed by some to come from the old game of court tennis and to allude to the banging about of balls in a sport that had much looser rules than present-day lawn tennis. Another theory is that the term originally meant from whipping-post to pillory (punishment to hanging), which would better account for the original order. It first appeared in John Lydgate’s The Assembly of Gods (ca. 1420). Dickens (Bleak House, 1853) used both the old and the new versions: “So badgered, and worried, and tortured, by being knocked about from post to pillar, and from pillar to post.”

See also: pillar, post, to

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer