- English translation
'Tomorrow' is a word that never gets used up.
- Literal wording
The saying of 'tomorrow' does not run out.
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb mocks the habit of answering every request with 'tomorrow'; قولة here means the act of saying that word as a stock excuse, not a formal statement. Because there is always another tomorrow, such a reply can be repeated forever, and the promised action never has to arrive. The word itself becomes an inexhaustible supply of delay.
In practice it exposes procrastination or evasive promising. It suggests that someone who keeps deferring is not really committing at all, and that a listener should treat open-ended postponement as a likely refusal in polite disguise.
- When it is used
Fits a moment when someone keeps postponing a promised task, payment, or favor with 'tomorrow'. In colloquial speech, a speaker can use it to call out the stalling politely but pointedly, or to warn a listener not to rely on such assurances.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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