wild horses

wild horses couldn't drag (one) away (from something)

One is determined or committed to keep doing something or remain somewhere. After spending so much money on the tickets to his concert, wild horses could drag me away! Wild horses couldn't drag Jim away from his work. He just gets too invested in it.
See also: away, drag, horse, wild

wild horses couldn't drag (one) to (something)

No force or enticement will make or convince one to go some place. I don't know what to do. Wild horses won't drag my kids to the dentist! I don't know why she bothered asking me if I'd like to go—wild horses couldn't drag me to one of those boy band concerts.
See also: drag, horse, wild

wild horses couldn't drag (something) from (one)

No amount of force, pressure, or enticement will make or convince one to divulge certain information. You can trust me with your secret—wild horses couldn't drag it from me! They thought they'd be able to make the financial advisor give up the passwords to his account, but it turned out wild horses couldn't drag the information from him.
See also: drag, horse, wild

wild horses wouldn't drag (one) to (something)

No force or enticement will make or convince one to go some place. I don't know what to do. Wild horses won't drag my kids to the dentist! I don't know why she bothered asking me if I'd like to go—wild horses wouldn't drag me to one of those boy band concerts.
See also: drag, horse, wild

wild horses wouldn't drag (something) from (one)

No amount of force, pressure, or enticement will make or convince one to divulge certain information. You can trust me with your secret—wild horses wouldn't drag it from me! They thought they'd be able to make the financial advisor give up the passwords to his account, but it turned out wild horses wouldn't drag the information from him.
See also: drag, horse, wild
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Wild horses couldn't drag someone away (from something.)

Prov. Someone is determined to remain with something. Once Elaine starts playing a video game, wild horses can't drag her away from it. Jim was determined to remain fishing at the lake. Wild horses couldn't drag him away from it.
See also: away, drag, horse, wild
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

wild horses

If you say that wild horses would not make you do something, you mean that nothing would make you do it. Wild horses wouldn't drag this secret out of me. Wild horses wouldn't make Nicola sell the house.
See also: horse, wild
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • wild horses couldn't drag (one) away (from something)
  • Wild horses couldn't drag away
  • stream
  • push on
  • in the vicinity (of something)
  • bring (something) with
  • bring with
  • somewhere along the line
  • somewhere, etc. along/down the line
  • wild horses couldn't drag (something) from (one)
References in classic literature
A sketch in gray and red dissolved into a moblike body of men who galloped like wild horses.
Red Badge of Courage
"Wild horses won't drag the secret from me," promised Anne solemnly.
Anne Of Green Gables
Wild horses would not drag from me the name of a certain river in the north whose narrow estuary is inhospitable and dangerous, and whose docks are like a nightmare of dreariness and misery.
Mirror of the Sea
I am not given to needless worrying, but the more I tried to convince myself that all was well with Powell, and that the dots I had seen on his trail were antelope or wild horses, the less I was able to assure myself.
Princess of Mars
In this neighborhood they met with wild horses, the first they had seen west of the Rocky Mountains.
Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountain
He was the elected Xerxes of vast herds of wild horses, whose pastures in those days were only fenced by the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies.
Moby Dick I LXVII
You might drag him at the heels of four wild horses first.'
You know as well as I do that your cousin Maldon would be dragged at the heels of any number of wild horses - why should I confine myself to four!
David Copperfield
I'll do anything you ask me; ride wild horses and take freezing baths and eat bad-tasting messes, and let my clothes hang on me, to show how much I thank you for this dear, sweet, lovely room!"
Eight Cousins
She had been pinning and unpinning, arranging and disarranging her veil ever since she entered the room, in the hope that the girls would ask her whose ring she was wearing this week; but although both had noticed the new ornament instantly, wild horses could not have drawn the question from them; her desire to be asked was too obvious.
Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm
"I'll never tell him to my dying day, wild horses shan't drag it out of me, so you'll forgive me, Meg, and I'll do anything to show how out-and-out sorry I am," he added, looking very much ashamed of himself.
Little Women
Falconer [5] gives a curious account of the Indians driving troops of wild horses into it, and then by guarding the entrance, keeping them secure.
The Voyage of the Beagle
Tom scampered after him, hallooing with might and main, and the wild horse and wild Irishman soon disappeared among the ravines of the prairie.
Adventures of Captain Bonneville USA in the Rocky Mountains and
This groundbreaking study titled; "Impact Of Wild Horses On Wilderness Landscape And Wildfire - Preliminary Findings" ('Study') by naturalist-rancher William E.
Study Reveals Solution for Range War Between Wild Horses and Cattle Ranchers