pigs can fly
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
something is impossible
Literally: pigs flying
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Once leaked, most kinds of information can no more be rebottled than pigs can fly.
' Who said that pigs can't fly? ' they said with a grin.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “pigs can fly” mean?
something is impossible Literally: pigs flying
Is “pigs can fly” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.