Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
A sincere but unsuccessful attempt.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: idiomatic, uncountable, usually
Qualifier: almost always preceded by a
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
An allusion to unsuccessful physical actions in such sports as cricket, baseball or boxing, as when swinging a bat at a pitched ball or when throwing a punch at an opponent.
Across languages
2 source translations are retained for this English entry.
