never-never

[ nev-er-nev-er ]

/ ˈnɛv ərˈnɛv ər /

British Slang. hire-purchase system.

not real or true; imaginary or ideal; illusory: the never-never world of the cinema.

Origin of never-never

First recorded in 1880–85

And this never-never tepid retread of a Bush-era policy is, incredibly, the only actual policy on offer.

The Flapdoodle Campaign |Megan McArdle |October 23, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
This was an other-world desert, one spawned in the fires of hell—a never-never land of scalding heat and unbelievable cold.

First on the Moon |Jeff Sutton
Sadly enough, there are too many who Never-Never do leave it.

We of the Never-Never |Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn
What castles in fairyland they build for us, what never-never ships they send to sea!

Hempfield |David Grayson

These wondrous waterways have little part in that mystical holding power of the Never-Never.

We of the Never-Never |Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn
"There's time enough for everything in the Never-Never," he said.

We of the Never-Never |Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn

never-never

/ informal /

the hire-purchase system of buying

Australian remote desert country, as that of W Queensland and central Australia

imaginary; idyllic (esp in the phrase never-never land)