Lombard Street to a China orange

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.

Noun

 * 1)  very long odds (in favour or against an outcome)
 * 2) * 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!”
 * 1) * 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.
 * 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.