jam tomorrow
Promised benefits that never arrive.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“They promise better pay, but it is always jam tomorrow.”
“I stop believing his excuses because it is always jam tomorrow.”
“You cannot pay your bills with jam tomorrow.”
“The manager keeps promising a bonus, but it feels like jam tomorrow every single year.”
“The developer claims the software will be bug-free by next month, but we have heard this jam tomorrow story since the project started.”
“Our landlord says he will fix the broken heater soon, but it sounds like jam tomorrow while we sit here in the cold.”
“The airline offered us travel vouchers for our lost luggage, but after months of waiting for the mail, it looks like another case of jam tomorrow.”
“The citizens grew weary of the politician's grand vision for the future, recognizing it as nothing more than jam tomorrow.”
first recorded 19th c.
From Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871), where Alice is offered “jam to-morrow and jam yesterday — but never jam to-day”. This is a pun on a mnemonic for the usage of jam, iam in Latin (note i/j conflation in Latin spelling), which means “now”, but only in the future or past tense, not in the present (which is instead nunc).
- 01
as if there were no tomorrow
To an excessive degree, oftentimes with little to no regard to future consequences; desperately; recklessly or wantonly; frantically; very quickly or very much.
- 02
jam today
The availability of a resource at the present date.
- 03
like there is no tomorrow
Alternative form of as if there were no tomorrow.
- 04
money for jam
Money made very easily.
Last updated August 10, 2026