Meanings
- Removed or cancelled right away.
I'll tell you what the Aussies would do - this guy would be gone by lunchtime.
2018 October 29, Dan Satherley, “Immigrant drug lord Karel Sroubek should be 'gone by lunchtime' - Simon Bridges”, in Newshub4 more examples
Foreign policy could not remain with Lockwood Smith who told visiting US Senators that New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy would be "gone by lunchtime."
2017 April 8, Audrey Young, “Long list of people glad to see Murray McCully gone”, in New Zealand HeraldIt's a meaningless race to the bottom of populist politics that undermines the complexity of tackling poverty as an endemic, intergenerational issue; that reduces it to something comfortably dealt with in the space of an electoral cycle – gone by lunchtime, perhaps?
2017 September 6, “Editorial: Poor are the biggest losers in high-stakes political game”, in The Dominion PostAnd the BBC's own Nicky Campbell has queried if the pair will be "gone by lunchtime" following allegations from the comedian's ex-girlfriend Rebecca Humphries.
2018 October 9, “Katya Jones and Seann Walsh to be booted off Strictly by lunchtime, claims BBC presenter”, in Irish MirrorKaikoura District Council chief executive Stuart Grant said the group wanted “ECan gone by lunchtime. This is a chance to gut the organisation. If water is staffed by ECan, it is doomed.”
2018 December 12, David Williams, “What Canterbury's water-bottling case tells us”, in Newsroom
Origin
A reference to a sudden termination of employment, when an employee is told to pack up their belongings and be "gone by lunchtime".
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gone by lunchtime. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gone%20by%20lunchtime
“gone by lunchtime.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gone%20by%20lunchtime. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gone by lunchtime,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gone%20by%20lunchtime.
Source: gone by lunchtime on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.