need like a hole in the head

Idioms and Phrases

Have neither a need nor a desire for something, as in I needed that extra work like I need a hole in the head . This expression has such ancestors as “As much need of it as he has of the pip [a disease] or of a cough,” from John Ray's English Proverbs (1678), and “As much need of it as a toad of a side pocket,” from Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785). [ Slang ; c. 1940]