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neither fish, flesh, nor fowl
Neither one thing nor another; not belonging to any suitable class or description; not recognizable or characteristic of any one particular thing. We require a solution that directly deals with the issue at hand, but what the chancellor has put forward is, to my mind, neither fish, flesh nor fowl.
neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring
obsolete Not belonging to any suitable class of thing; unfit for any purpose or to be used by anyone. This older phrase appeared in a 16th-century proverb collection, where fish refers to food for monks (who abstained from meat), flesh refers to food for the general populace, and "good red herring" refers to inexpensive fish that would have been food for the poor. With crime as it is in this township, the law must be aggressive and dependable; unfortunately, the new constable is neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.
neither fish nor flesh
Neither one thing nor another; not belonging to any suitable class or description; not recognizable or characteristic of any one particular thing. We require a solution that directly deals with the issue at hand, but what the chancellor has put forward is, to my mind, neither fish nor flesh.
hide (n)or hair
No sign or sight of something or someone. I haven't seen hide nor hair of our neighbor in weeks—I hope he's OK! Can you go check outside for the cat? I haven't seen hide or hair of her in hours.
be neither fish nor fowl
To be difficult to describe or definitively categorize. What genre of music is this? It's neither fish nor fowl to me.
be neither one thing nor the other
To be an unappealing combination of two very different things. A: "I thought you liked country and jazz." B: "I do, and that's why this band is so disappointing—it's neither one thing nor the other."
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
Prov. It is difficult to be friends with someone who owes you money or with someone to whom you owe something, so it is better not to borrow or lend in the first place. After losing several of my favorite books because I didn't have the nerve to insist that my friends return them, I learned that it is best to neither a borrower nor a lender be.
neither fish nor fowl
Cliché not any recognizable thing. The car that they drove up in was neither fish nor fowl. It must have been made out of spare parts. This proposal is neither fish nor fowl. I can't tell what you're proposing.
neither here nor there
Cliché of no consequence or meaning; irrelevant and immaterial. Whether you go to the movie or stay at home is neither here nor there. Your comment—though interesting—is neither here nor there.
*(neither) hide nor hair
Cliché no sign or indication of someone or something. (*Typically: find ~; see ~.) We could find neither hide nor hair of him. I don't know where he is. There has been no one here. We found neither hide nor hair.
*neither rhyme nor reason
Cliché without logic, order, or planning. (Describes something disorganized. *Typically: be ~; have ~.) There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to Gerald's filing system. The novel's plot had neither rhyme nor reason.
not for (anything in) the world
and not for love nor money; not on your lifeFig. not for anything (no matter what its value). (Note the variation in the examples. The order of love nor money is fixed.) I won't do it for love nor money. He said he wouldn't do it—not for the world.
not miss something for the world
and not miss something for love nor moneyFig. would not miss something for any reason at all. Of course I'll be at your wedding. I wouldn't miss it for the world.
neither here nor there
not of any importance Whether we take the train or drive is neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned.
be neither fish nor fowl
if something is neither fish nor fowl, it is difficult to describe or understand because it is like one thing in some ways but like another thing in other ways The hovercraft has always suffered from the fact that it is neither fish nor fowl.
can't make head nor/or tail of something
to not be able to understand something at all We couldn't make head or tail of the film. 'What does his message say?' 'I don't know - I can't make head or tail of it.'
not for love nor/or money
if you say that you cannot or will not do something for love nor money, you mean that it is impossible to do or that you will not do it whatever happens It's incredibly popular. You can't get tickets for love nor money. He's hopeless and unreliable. I wouldn't give him a job for love nor money.
be neither one thing nor the other
if you say that something is neither one thing nor the other, you think it is bad because it is a mixture of two different things that do not combine well together I prefer a book to be either fact or fiction - this one's neither one thing nor the other.
neither here nor there
if a fact is neither here nor there, it is not important Whether they go or not is neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned.
See be neither fish nor fowlhaven't seen hide nor hair of somebody/something
(informal) if you have not seen hide nor hair of someone or something, you have not seen them for a period of time (often + since ) I haven't seen hide nor hair of her since last Sunday, and I'm beginning to get rather worried.
hide nor hair, neither
Also, hide or hair. No trace of something lost or missing. For example, I haven't seen hide nor hair of the children. This expression alludes to the entire outer coat of an animal. [Mid-1800s]
neither fish nor fowl
Also, neither fish nor flesh; neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. Not one or the other, not something fitting any category under discussion. For example, They felt he was neither fish nor fowl-not qualified to lead the department, yet not appropriate to work as a staff member either . This expression appeared in slightly different form in John Heywood's 1546 proverb collection ("Neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring") and is thought to allude to food for monks ( fish, because they abstained from meat), for the people ( flesh, or meat), and for the poor ( red herring, a very cheap fish).
neither here nor there
Unimportant, irrelevant, as in
You pay for the movie and I'll get the dinner check, or vice versa-it's neither here nor there . This expression was first recorded in 1583. Also see
beside the point.
rhyme or reason, no
An absence of common sense or reasonableness, as in This memo has no rhyme or reason. Closely related variants are without rhyme or reason, as in The conclusion of her paper was without rhyme or reason, and neither rhyme nor reason, as in Neither rhyme nor reason will explain that lawyer's objections. This term originated in French about 1475 and began to be used in English about a century later. Sir Thomas More is credited with saying of a mediocre book that a friend had put into verse, "Now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; whereas before it was neither rhyme nor reason."
neither fish nor fowl
Having no specific characteristics; indefinite.
hide nor hair
A trace; a vestige: haven't seen hide nor hair of them since the argument.
neither here nor there
Unimportant and irrelevant.
neither fish nor fowl
Having no specific characteristics or category, not easily characterized. The phrase, which was originally “neither fish nor flesh nor fowl,” appeared in slightly different form in a 16th-century collection of proverbs as “neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring”: fish for monks who ate no meat, flesh for people who could afford meat, and cheap herring for the poor. The phrase is reminiscent of the old riddle: What is neither fish nor flesh, feathers nor bone/but still has fingers and thumbs of its own? Answer: a glove.
neither rhyme nor reason
Making no sense at all. “Rhyme” alludes to poetry and by extension all of the creative arts, while “reason” stands for intellect. Accordingly, something that can't be understood or justified in terms of either artistic merit or logic is indeed of little value.
Common Names:
| Name | Gender | Pronounced | Usage |
|---|
| Bernstein | | ['bə:nstain] | |
| Nadeem | | - | Arabic, Urdu |
| Dorothy | | DAWR-ə-thee, DAWR-thee | English |
| Griffin | | ['grifin] | |
| Vincent | | VIN-sənt (English), ven-SAWN (French) | English, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Slovak |
| Vira | | - | Ukrainian |