whistle in the dark
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To try to courageously hide one's fear or uncertainty
Literally: producing a loud, clear sound in a dark place
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Horst and Jurgen had been whistling in the dark.
Her fine words had been so much whistling in the dark.
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 “whistle in the dark” mean?
To try to courageously hide one's fear or uncertainty Literally: producing a loud, clear sound in a dark place
Is “whistle in the dark” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.