Englishin a pig's eye
Meaning: absolutely not; never; expressing strong disagreement.
Example: “"He'll pay you back next week." "In a pig's eye."”
Origin: American, and genuinely obscure. Explanations built on pig anatomy — that a pig's eyes are small, or poorly placed, or see badly — are offered fairly often but have no evidence behind them and read as attempts to rationalize a phrase after the fact. The likelier account is far simpler: it belongs to a large family of emphatic American dismissals in which an absurd or vulgar image is substituted for a blunt refusal, and several members of that family are minced forms of something coarser that could not be said in company. What the phrase does is not really argue with a claim but refuse to engage with it, which is why the image underneath can afford to be nonsense and still work perfectly.
More English idioms
- stick your oar in to interfere in someone else's affairs; to meddle.
- lower your guard to relax defenses; to become vulnerable.
- bring home the bacon to provide income; to succeed in earning money.
- come hell or high water no matter what obstacles arise; with absolute determination.
- run rings around someone to easily surpass someone; to be far superior in ability.
- a storm in a teacup excessive fuss over something trivial; tempest in a teapot.
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