Tib's Eve

English

Etymology

After Tib (or Tibb), a fictional woman of loose morals in 17th-century English plays. Such a woman would not be a saint and so there was no Saint Tib and therefore no Tib's Eve.

Proper noun

Tib's Eve

1. (UK, slang, archaic) A supposed future time that will never arrive.

   Marry you? I'll marry you on Tib's Eve!

Alternative forms

• St. Tibb's Eve, St. Tib's Eve, Tibb's Eve

See also

• Greek calends
• in the reign of Queen Dick
• when Hell freezes over
• when pigs fly

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary