piss up a wall

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To waste time or effort on something futile

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

lãng phí thời gian hoặc công sức vào việc vô ích

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: urinate up a wall
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He's been trying to fix the engine, but he's just pissing up a wall

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

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 “piss up a wall” mean?

To waste time or effort on something futile Literally: urinate up a wall

Is “piss up a wall” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.