When hell freezes over

A snow-covered forest road with the Anthony T. Hincks Quote "WHen hell freezes over the world will be covered in snow."
(Photo: Elena Arboleda Salas/Pixabay | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

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Idiom: When hell freezes over

This one is for those of you who have a little bit of a stubborn streak in you.

It’s not in keeping with the Christmas spirit, but if someone crosses you, you always take it personally and only forgive them when hell freezes over.


In other words, it’ll never, ever, not in a million years, not if they come begging you on their knees for forgiveness happen.


Sure, it’s a little bit vindictive, but they deserve it, right?

I’m not really one to bear a grudge, but there are some people that I will never forgive.

Some bridges, once crossed, are burned – never to be repaired again.

If someone uses the when hell freezes over phrase towards you, you can take it to heart or take it with a grain of salt.

I mean, if someone decides to cancel you out of their life, it’s their loss, don’t you think?


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Then there are other ways you can use this phrase.

For example, winter has arrived, and soon, some places will have their annual Polar Bear Plunge/Swim event.

I’m not sure about you, but jumping into the freezing cold ocean is not my first choice for how to celebrate the New Year.

Therefore, I’ll only be doing that when hell freezes over.

Having a bucket list has become popular in the last few years, but in addition to my bucket list, I actually have a when-hell-freezes-over list.

It includes things such as Polar Bear Plunge, sightseeing in North Korea, swimming with Great White Sharks in South Africa and putting my head in an alligator’s mouth.

Bungy jumping naked is something I have done, but I know when to draw the line, and there are some things I’ll only do when hell freezes over.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 76.

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.