forever and a day
1. Eternally; always; ceaselessly. Honey, I'll love you forever and a day! Even though Mrs. Porter is retiring, I know her devotion to the school will go on forever and a day. She only worked here 50 years! I can't believe you want to separate! I vowed to love you and stand by you forever and a day, and I meant it!
2. An exceptionally long period of time. Jim, how you been? It's been forever and a day since I last saw you! Geez, it'll take forever and a day to clean all this stuff out of Nana's attic! It took us forever and a day to get across town because traffic was so backed up.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
forever and a day
1. For a very long time, as in He's been working on that book forever and a day. This hyperbolic expression probably originated as a corruption of the now obsolete for ever and ay. Shakespeare used it in The Taming of the Shrew (4:4): "Farewell for ever and a day." Today it is mainly a substitute for "very long time." [c. 1600]
2. Incessantly, ceaselessly, as in Will this racket never end? It's been going on forever and a day. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s]
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.
for ever and a day
Always; forever.
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.