from pillar to post

副词 adv.
中文释义

英文释义

副词 adv.
  1. From one place, place, or thing to another, hither and thither. dated,idiomatic,not-comparable
    — Mr. [Charles] Babbage, in his work on the Economy of Manufactures, suggests a new plan of forwarding the mail. […] Mr. Babbage proposes the erection of pillars along each line of road; these pillars are to be connected by inclined wires, or iron rods, along which the letters, inclosed in cylinders attached to the rods by rings, are to slide; persons stationed on these columns are to forward the cylinders from each point, after having extracted the contents belonging to their own station. In this manner it is calculated that a letter might be sent (from pillar to post), to the farthest limits of the land in the course of a very small portion of time; […]

词形变化

from post to pillar alternative

词源

Possibly originally from post to pillar, perhaps a reference to the rapid movement of the ball in real tennis; The Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs (1993) notes that from post to pillar dates to at least the 15th century.
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