Meanings
- When pigs fly; never.
These things will happen when shrimps whistle. Individuals and groups with divergent concepts of meaning and truth are likely to regard each other as prevaricators even when doing their respective best to be sincere.
1965, Charles Burton Marshall, The Exercise of Sovereignty: Papers on Foreign Policy, page 1101 more example
You will catch her smiling at you, as Khruschchev used to say, when shrimps whistle. I call for a bowl of kasha and she brings it to the table. The cabbage soup is thickened with flour, a lump of meat swimming on the surface of the broth. Never mind the kasha, and I push it away. The babushka takes[…]
2017 July 5, Francis R. Nicosia, The Three Romes: Moscow, Constantinople, and Rome, Routledge, →ISBN, page 64
Origin
- Russianкогда рак“when the crawfish whistles (on the mountain)”
- Englishwhen shrimps whistle
Calque of Russian когда рак (на горе) свистнет (kogda rak (na gore) svistnet, “when the crawfish whistles (on the mountain)”)
More words from Russian
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
when shrimps whistle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/when%20shrimps%20whistle
“when shrimps whistle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/when%20shrimps%20whistle. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “when shrimps whistle,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/when%20shrimps%20whistle.
Source: when shrimps whistle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.