not on your nelly
not on your life, an emphatic form of no.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Am I going to lend him money? Not on your nelly.”
“Do you want to go skydiving? Not on your nelly.”
“He thinks I will work for free, but not on your nelly.”
“She asked if I'd ever move back to my hometown, and I said, 'Not on your nelly.'”
“My brother asked if I would let him drive my brand-new car across the country, but I told him not on your nelly.”
“The waiter asked if we wanted to try the world's spiciest chili pepper, and my friend replied, 'Not on your nelly, I value my stomach.'”
“When the corrupt official suggested he might quietly overlook the violation for a small fee, the inspector laughed and said, 'Not on your nelly — not while I wear this badge.'”
Cockney rhyming slang, derived from the name Nelly Duff. The name serves as a rhyme for puff, representing a puff of breath or the breath of life itself. To refuse on one's Nelly Duff is to swear against the very continuation of one's respiration, a commitment which survived in the mid-20th century primarily in its truncated form.
Last updated August 10, 2026