Don’t keep discussing until cows come home..

We can keep discussing whether wearing jeans causes rape till cows come home but unless we are willing to punish the culprits, we would remain a primitive society

We can keep discussing the importance of superior English communication skills till the cows come home but nothing concrete will happen till you get down and do something.

The target phrase, no prizes for guessing, is, “Until cows come home”.

Now, suppose you are a cute little cowherd who leaves with his herd in the morning, grazes them over green hills, across rivers and through large meadows. When the evening falls after the long day, you and your cows come home.

Q: When do cows come home?

A: At the end of the long day, after a long time.

What could it mean figuratively?

For a long time?

You get the idea? So you could be arguing about the best color for your car till the cows come home and reach no decision. Or you can keep thinking about which college to join till the cows come home without any decision.

The phrase indicates passage of a very long time and is generally used to stress the futility of something which would go on for long without any positive results.

Let’s take some examples:

1. You can keep discussing about Kejriwal’s political motives till cows come home but the point is that the charges are serious and there should be an independent inquiry into whether a scam really happened.
2. We can keep discussing the impact of western culture on Indian values till the cows come home and it will not enhance the security of girls. Babies are raped and so are eighty year olds. The issue is there happens a crime, are we ready to punish the culprit or do we want to crucify the victim.
3. You can discuss about economic policies till cows come home but please realize that there are people out there dying of hunger.

Use this phrase to describe a situation where some wasteful activity is taking a long time. Some more examples:

1. I am not interested in discussing some weird psychological theory of motivation till cows come home. I know my job and am equipped to do it well without this leadership training.
2.  Our politicians have mastered the art of discussing things till cows come home without doing anything concrete.