whistle in the wind en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
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(UK, especially, idiomatic) To attempt something that is futile; to say something that is not heeded.
[E]veryone is doing no more than whistling powerlessly in the wind.
2018 July 9, Farouk Cassim, "Let’s do much more than whistling in the wind", voices360.com (South Africa) (retrieved 29 July 2018)It doesn’t matter how strong your USP is or how powerful your value proposition, if the message isn’t reaching the right people you're whistling in the wind.
2014 January 21, “Don't whistle in the wind?”, in DLH Marketing, UK, retrieved 29 Jul 2018:[T]hey are expending more and more effort on trying to get right something that cannot, and should not, be done in the first place. […] Endless exhortations to "do it better" are, to put it politely, whistling in the wind.
2009 February 22, Simon Caulkin, “However good the pay, it doesn't buy results”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 29 Jul 2018:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| whistling in the wind | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| whistles in the wind | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| whistled in the wind | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| whistled in the wind | Tense=Past | lexicographic |
Relateds
whistle down the wind · whistle Dixie · whistle past the graveyard · whistle in the dark
Synonyms
piss in the wind · piss up a rope
Translations (5)
pl hula wiatr (to say something that is not heeded) · de ein Windei ausbrüten (to attempt something that is futile) · de mit der Wand reden (to say something that is not heeded) · de gegen Windmühlen kämpfen (to attempt something that is futile) · pl hula wiatr (to attempt something that is futile)