Draw a blank
to not achieve any results
TRANSLATION
to draw a blank = eine Niete ziehen, erfolglos sein, etwas vergessen --- GOOGLE INDEX draw a blank: approximately 2,500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Search for Missing Man DRAWS A BLANK
(BBC - news headline)
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All four Australian nominees for this year's Grammys DREW A BLANK at the awards ceremony yesterday...
(The Australian)
(BBC - news headline)
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All four Australian nominees for this year's Grammys DREW A BLANK at the awards ceremony yesterday...
(The Australian)
Did you
know?
draw a blank
idiom
- to fail to get an answer or a result
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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This phrase originates from the lottery that was established in Tudor England. Elizabeth I, like the monarchs of other European countries at the time, was short of money and decided to copy rival nation states by instituting a national lottery. The money so raised was intended to go towards the "reparation of the havens and strength of the Realm and towards further public works." She signed the license granting the lottery in 1567.
Lotteries at that time worked by putting tickets with the participant's names on them into a 'lot pot'. An equal number of notes, some with the prizes written on them and some of which were blank, went into another pot. Pairs of tickets were drawn simultaneously from the two pots. A failure to succeed thus came to be associated with drawing a blank.
Drawing a blank can also be used in the sense of a failure to remember or recall something: "He asked me which folder I saved the file in, but I drew a blank."
(adapted from The Phrase Finder)
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Hopefully researchers will find a cure for cancer, but so far they have drawn a blank."
idiom
- to fail to get an answer or a result
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
This phrase originates from the lottery that was established in Tudor England. Elizabeth I, like the monarchs of other European countries at the time, was short of money and decided to copy rival nation states by instituting a national lottery. The money so raised was intended to go towards the "reparation of the havens and strength of the Realm and towards further public works." She signed the license granting the lottery in 1567.
Lotteries at that time worked by putting tickets with the participant's names on them into a 'lot pot'. An equal number of notes, some with the prizes written on them and some of which were blank, went into another pot. Pairs of tickets were drawn simultaneously from the two pots. A failure to succeed thus came to be associated with drawing a blank.
Drawing a blank can also be used in the sense of a failure to remember or recall something: "He asked me which folder I saved the file in, but I drew a blank."
(adapted from The Phrase Finder)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Hopefully researchers will find a cure for cancer, but so far they have drawn a blank."
