Meaning
To make every possible effort to achieve something, however extreme or difficult the measures required. A strong hyperbole of determination, typically followed by an infinitive ('to move heaven and earth to get something done'), implying that no obstacle will be allowed to stand. Emphatic and dramatic; effective in speech but heavy-handed if overused in writing. Regional use: General English.
Origin
A hyperbole whose exact origin is unknown: the image of physically disturbing the cosmos to force an outcome is a natural exaggeration, and no first coiner is documented. Grammarist dates the English expression to the late eighteenth century, where it described 'extraordinary efforts', and notes that it was already treated as a cliché by the late 1880s, citing F. Anstey's novel The Tinted Venus (1885), in which the police are described as 'moving heaven and earth' to recover a fugitive. Some commentary instead finds seventeenth-century uses, so the early chronology is best treated as unsettled rather than pinned to a single date.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- move heaven and earth to do something
- moved heaven and earth
- moving heaven and earth
- would move heaven and earth
Usage Examples
- The airline moved heaven and earth to rebook everyone before the storm closed the airport.
- She vowed to move heaven and earth to keep the community library open.
- Doctors have moved heaven and earth to find a donor match, and the search continues.