if pigs had wings, they would fly

proverb

Expresses skepticism toward a hypothetical argument by another.

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Meanings

proverb

alternative if pigs had wings, they could fly · alternative if pigs had wings, they'd fly

  1. colloquialExpresses skepticism toward a hypothetical argument by another.
    1 more example

    Asked by a reporter for The Chicago Tribune whether a conservative Christian college would risk its tax-exempt status by refusing to admit a legally married gay couple to married-student housing, Cass Sunstein, a constitutional scholar at the University of Chicago Law School who had not been at the Becket conference, answered, "Sure — and if pigs had wings, they would fly." He dismissed the idea as a scenario "generated by advocacy groups trying to scare people."

    2006 June 10, Peter Steinfels, “Will Same-Sex Marriage Collide With Religious Liberty?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 May 2011

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle
Cite this entry
APA

if pigs had wings, they would fly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/if%20pigs%20had%20wings%2C%20they%20would%20fly

MLA

“if pigs had wings, they would fly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/if%20pigs%20had%20wings%2C%20they%20would%20fly. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “if pigs had wings, they would fly,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/if%20pigs%20had%20wings%2C%20they%20would%20fly.

Source: if pigs had wings, they would fly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.