not on your nelly

English

Etymology

From nelly, Nelly Duff, rhyming slang for puff (of breath = life).

Pronunciation

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Adverb

not on your nelly

1. (idiomatic, chiefly UK) not on your life, an emphatic form of no.

Alternative forms

• not on your Nellie

Synonyms

• not in a million years
• not likely
• not on your life
• no way
• no way Jose
• when pigs fly
• a cold day in Hell

Translations

an emphatic negative

• Maori: nōhea hoki, nōwhea hoki
• Serbo-Croatian: ni za živu glavu