Lombard Street to a China orange

English Alternative forms all Lombard Street to a China orange all Lombard Street to a china orange Lombard-street to a China orange Etymology Lombard Street as a metonym for all the money in British banks. A China orange as something of trifling value.Alenka Vrbinc, A Cross-linguistic and Cross-cultural Analysis of English and Slovene Onomastic Phraseological Units p.117 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019) 9781527532663 Noun - Lombard Street to a China orange en figurative dated very long odds (in favour or against an outcome) 1885 John Conroy Hutcheson On Board the Esmeralda (Chapter Fifteen. “A Little Unpleasantness.”) As Jorrocks expressed it, in the event of such a catastrophe happening, “It was all Lombard Street to a China orange we’d lose the number of our mess and sarve as food for fishes!” en 1906 Burford Delannoy Prince Charlie XXIII The odds, too, are against a drunkard's reformation; all Lombard Street to a China orange. 1907 Herbert M. Vaughan, The Naples Riviera (Chapter II "The Vesuvian Shore and Monte Sant' Angelo") Mora has been a favourite recreation with these people almost from their cradles, and he would be a bold man indeed who would venture to challenge a Torrese at this game, for the native's skill and experience are almost bound to tell eventually in his favour, and the odds are "Lombard Street to a China orange" against the outside player. en 1916 Frank Harris Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions. Volume 1 66 Of course he was still sneered at by many as a mere poseur; it still seemed to be all Lombard Street to a china orange that he would be beaten down under the myriad trampling feet of middle-class indifference and disdain. en 1937 Sir Malcolm Campbell The Roads and the Problem of their Safety London: Hutchinson 151 It looked the proverbial Lombard Street to a china orange that he must be run down and killed. By a superlatively skilful piece of driving, the bus-driver just managed to avoid him[.] References