1. Home
2. Idioms
3. from pillar to post

from pillar to post

---

---

from pillar to post

Fig. from one place to a series of other places; (figuratively) from person to person, as with gossip. My father was in the army, and we moved from pillar to post year after year. After I told one person my secret, it went quickly from pillar to post.

See also: pillar, post

from pillar to post

  (British & Australian)

if someone goes from pillar to post, they are forced to keep moving from one place to another After his mother died, Billy was passed from pillar to post and ended up in a children's home.

See a pillar of strength

See also: pillar, post

from pillar to post

From one thing or place to another, hither and thither. For example, After Kevin joined the Air Force, the family kept moving from pillar to post. This expression began life in the early 1400s as from post to pillar, an order no longer used, and is thought to allude to the banging about of a ball in the game of court tennis.

See also: pillar, post

from pillar to post

From one place to another; hither and thither.

See also: pillar, post