English Explanatory Dictionary

over the river and through the woods

English dictionary entry

Meanings

prep_phrase
  1. Trying to achieve a particular task, often with difficulty.
  2. Lost.
  3. Having lost one's mind; insane.
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see over, the, river, and, through, the, woods.

Pronunciation

/ˈoʊ.vɚ ðə ˈɹɪvɚ ən(d)θɹu ðə wʊdz/ En-au-over the river and through the woods.ogg

Word forms

over the river and through the woods

Etymology

Originally based on a Thanksgiving poem written by Lydia Maria Child, this phrase was eventually turned into one of the many various Christmas carols and then soon developed its own meaning in the English lexicon. See the Wikipedia article for more information.

Related words

over the river
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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