camel through the eye of a needle
English
Etymology
With reference to the New Testament, Mark 10.25, Mat. 19.24 and Luke 18.25. See the Citations page for those texts.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Phrase
camel through the eye of a needle
- (idiomatic) Hyperbole to illustrate something that is almost impossible to do or to make happen.
- Getting George to wake up before 7 o'clock is harder than getting a camel through the eye of a needle.
- 1795, John Swanwick (as "Snub"), "To WILLIAM WILCOCKS, Esquire, L. L. D. and DUke of New-York, &c.", in A Rub from Snub; or a cursory analytical epistle, page 57, quoting Wilcocks in the first footnote.
- Alluding to the exordium of his writings againſt the democrats, wherein he ſays “ It is a difficult for a party-man to be an honeſt man, as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,” whereby he moſt emphatically declares his own diſhoneſty at the very firſt daſh of his pen.
- 1825, "Sir H. L.", in The Political Correspondence of the Leading Members of Parliament with the the[sic] Speaker of the House of Commons on Emancipation, James Bigg (publ.), page 83.
- You are endeavouring to pass a bill that never can and that never will pass the House of Lords. Do you want to make a camel go through the eye of a needle?
Related terms
- it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God
Translations
impossible
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