Idiom
pound sand
Meaning
To engage in a simple, useless activity that anyone would reasonably know how to perform.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“If he thinks I will help him, he can go pound sand.”
“You can tell that dishonest salesman to go pound sand.”
“When the rude customer demanded a refund for his own mistake, the manager told him to go pound sand.”
“The landlord raised the rent by fifty percent, so the tenants told him to pound sand and moved out the next day.”
“After the consultant offered yet another impractical solution, the frustrated director dismissed him and suggested he go pound sand.”
Examples
simple
“If he thinks I will help him, he can go pound sand.”
“You can tell that dishonest salesman to go pound sand.”
contextual
“When the rude customer demanded a refund for his own mistake, the manager told him to go pound sand.”
“The landlord raised the rent by fifty percent, so the tenants told him to pound sand and moved out the next day.”
complex
“After the consultant offered yet another impractical solution, the frustrated director dismissed him and suggested he go pound sand.”
Origin
The expression dates to the 19th century, originating as a reference to a task of singular futility. It was traditionally employed as an illustration of an activity so elementary that even the most inept individual could manage it, while simultaneously serving as a metaphor for an occupation so entirely without purpose that only a fool would undertake it. The idiom survives as a dismissal, recommending that the listener occupy themselves with a labor that achieves nothing.
Key words
Related idioms
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