whistle for
English
Verb
whistle for (third-person singular simple present whistles for, present participle whistling for, simple past and past participle whistled for)
- (idiomatic) To ask for with no chance of success.
- 2009, Max Arthur, We Will Remember Them: Voices from the Aftermath of the Great War, →ISBN:
- If we wanted something we could whistle for it - but if the Australians wanted something you'd got to get it for them, or else.
- 2012, Joan Jonker, Walking My Baby Back Home, →ISBN:
- She could whistle for it now; she wouldn't get a penny from him even if she crawled on all fours.
- 2014, Tess Read, The Secret Diary of Eric Cowell - Aged 6 1/2 months, →ISBN:
- And if it was milk I was after from that environment I could clearly whistle for it.
- 1973, Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing, →ISBN, page 96:
- And as for ceilings, you can whistle for them. I have lived in this house for six years and it hasn't hurt me.
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- Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see whistle, for.
Anagrams
- fish trowel