Meaning of why oh why | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A strengthened form of why, as used in questions.
2. A statement of exasperation associated with reactionary viewpoints.
   UK, attributive, sometimes

Examples

“Why, oh why, oh why oh / Why did I ever leave⟳ Ohio?”

“Are these terrible figures greeted by hysterical "why-oh-why?" letters to the Times demanding a huge shift in resources from road-building to rail-modernisation?”

“Indeed, a right-wing paper is hardly ready for press⟳ without a why-oh-why article on children's failures to identify⟳ verbs and nouns.”

“To mark⟳ the introduction of civil partnership in Britain, the Daily Telegraph duly featured a bitter polemic from 'Why-oh-Why' columnist Ferdinand Mount⟳.”

“David Starkey and John Casey, a donnish don from Cambridge who cranks out 'why, oh why?' hand-wringing pieces for the Daily Mail, are modern equivalents.”

“... the British health system, once the best in the world, was disintegrating in a welter of underfunding, staff shortages and collapsing morale. A hand-wringing why-oh-why piece appeared in the Daily Mail, an internal investigation was ordered.”

CEFR level