a swing and a miss

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: swing and a miss

Sense 1

Meaning · English

completely failing to achieve something

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

hoàn toàn thất bại trong việc đạt được điều gì đó

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a baseball swing that misses the ball
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English
Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Sense 2

Meaning · English

Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English
Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review.

Common questions

What does “a swing and a miss” mean?

completely failing to achieve something Literally: a baseball swing that misses the ball

Is “a swing and a miss” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.