from pillar to post

Language: en

Meaning: (idiomatic)From oneplace(or person, or task) toanother;from post to pillar,hither and thither.1832July, “A Novelty in Posting”, inThe Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature of the Year 1832, volume LXXIV, London: Printed for Baldwin and Cradock[et al.], published1833,→OCLC,page81:Mr.[Charles] Babbage, in his work on the Economy of Manufactures, suggests a new plan of forwarding the mail.[…]Mr. Babbage proposes the erection of pillars along each line of road; these pillars are to be connected by inclined wires, or iron rods, along which the letters, inclosed in cylinders attached to the rods by rings, are to slide; persons stationed on these columns are to forward the cylinders from each point, after having extracted the contents belonging to their own station. In this manner it is calculated that a letter might be sent (from pillar to post), to the farthest limits of the land in the course of a very small portion of time;[…]1872,Testimony in Relation to Alleged Frauds in the New York Custom-House, Taken by the Committee on Investigation and Retrenchment(United States Senate,42d Congress, 2d Session; report no. 227), volume III, Washington, D.C.:Government Printing-Office,→OCLC,page181:Q. You applied to Secretary[George Sewall] Boutwellbecause you had ascertained you could not get redress anywhere else?—A. No; we were sentfrom pillar to post, and from post to pillar, and we got no satisfaction any way.1874May, “From Pillar to Post”, inSarah J[osepha] Hale,Louis A[ntoine] Godey, editors,Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, volume LXXXVIII, number527, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by Louis A. Godey, N.E. cor. Sixth andChestnut Sts.,→OCLC,page421:All these things, and others of like nature, are in their minds floating possibilities; in consequence of which they are sentfrom pillar to postin the realms of opinion, and are never anchored anywhere.1989, Marshall Kirk, Hunter Madsen,After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s, Doubleday Books,page xv:[…]gays are still houndedfrom pillar to postby the watchdogs of American society.2003, Joan Steinau Lester,Fire in My Soul:Eleanor Holmes Norton, New York, N.Y.:Atria Books,ISBN978-0-7434-0787-8; republished New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, January 2004,ISBN978-0-7434-0788-5, page 263:We campaigned like hell. On election day we wentfrom pillar to postbegging people to support us.2011March 28, “Bihar assembly passes bill for time-bound government services”, inDaily Bhaskar‎[1], archived fromthe originalon21 June 2016:When the bill becomes an act, it will provide a big relief to people who now runfrom pillar to postand are forced to pay bribes to get their work done in government offices.2011April 2, Steve Brenner, “Joey will defy pack of Wolves”, inThe Sun, London:Back in August, the Toon ace [Joey Barton] was kickedfrom pillar to postbyKarl Henryin a bone-crunching midfield battle at Molineux.2023March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, inRAIL, number979, page38:There was also a belief that they had been taken advantage of - "kickedfrom pillar to post, the bottom dogs in the labour market because of the inherent love of railmen for their jobs", according to one NUR member.

Examples:

EN: She's kicked me from pillar to post ever since I married her.
ES: Me ha tenido dando tumbos desde que la conocí.
EN: Pushed about from pillar to post by this railway ever since we got on the train.
ES: No nos han dejado en paz desde que hemos subido al tren.
EN: Get pushed around from pillar to post.
ES: Van de un lado para otro.
EN: Why should my love life be kicked around from pillar to post?
ES: ¿Por qué hasta el último mono tiene que opinar de mi vida amorosa?
EN: I'm terribly sorry if I've upset you by appearing to hound you from pillar to post. But I have to check up on these silly little points or I get a rap over the knuckles.
ES: Siento terriblemente haberle molestado y que parezca que le persigo a todas horas, pero tengo que comprobar estas tonterías o me echarán un rapapolvos.
EN: We're kicked around from pillar to post.
ES: Nos envían de un lado para otro.
EN: "And was kicked from pillar to post
ES: "Yme echaron de todas partes
EN: You get pushed around from pillar to post.
ES: Te mandan de un lado al otro.
EN: It's true, your husband goes from pillar to post.
ES: Tu marido va de mariposa en mariposa.
EN: - You're harsh, Bernard. - No. He goes from pillar to post, but he can't bear his wife doing the same thing.
ES: - Eres demasiado duro, Bernard.
EN: He'll go to Brussels, and then to Amsterdam, from pillar to post.
ES: Le enviarán a Bruselas y luego a Amsterdam, de un sitio a otro.
EN: Have you sent me from Darjeeling to Bombay to run from pillar to post?
ES: ¿Me envias de Darjeeling a Mumbai para ir de un lado a otro?
EN: ..she had to run from pillar to post.
ES: - ..ella corrió de un lado a otro.
EN: No, I truly see you play around, always going from pillar to post.
ES: No, si ya veo lo bien que te lo pasas, siempre de la ceca a La Meca.
EN: The Belgians dragged us around from pillar to post.
ES: En Bélgica no teníamos ni tiempo de respirar.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).

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