long shot
something with little chance of success
TRANSLATION
long shot = ein Unterfangen mit hohem Risiko/mit wenig Aussicht auf Erfolg --- GOOGLE INDEX long shot: approximately 12,500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Obama-backed gun bills considered a LONG SHOT in Congress
(CNN)
---
Sure, some newspapers have folded and others may do the same, but the industry isn't dead, not by a LONG SHOT.
(American Press)
(CNN)
---
Sure, some newspapers have folded and others may do the same, but the industry isn't dead, not by a LONG SHOT.
(American Press)
Did you
know?
long shot
idiom
- an undertaking, guess, or possibility with little chance of success
(Collins English Dictionary)
---
Unlike modern navies where sailors stare at computer screens and launch high-tech missiles thousands of miles from their targets, the navies of old relied on cannons that had to be fired from a relatively close distance.
The real skill involved positioning the ship alongside an enemy vessel and hitting it before it could fire back. The further the distance from an enemy ship, the less accurate the shot was. In other words, a "long shot" was one that had a lesser chance of hitting its mark.
Ships sometimes also fired "a shot across the bow," which involved firing a shot in front of an enemy ship to force it to stop or alter course or simply to as warning to be prepared for battle. The bow (pronounced like the "ow" in owl) is the front section of a ship.
The expression "shot across the bow" is also used in a figurative sense to note a warning (Google chief executive Larry Page has fired a shot across the bow of Facebook, saying the social network is doing a really bad job on its products).
Without high technology such as radar, sailing ships found fighting at night particularly difficult. That meant they had to take "a shot in the dark," an expression that refers to a general attempt or a wild guess.
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SYNONYMS
hundred-to-one shot, little chance, long odds, no chance, off-chance, one in a million, outside chance, slim chance, small chance
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I don't bother to play the lottery because it's such a long shot."
---
Thanks to Ingrid for suggesting today's word!
idiom
- an undertaking, guess, or possibility with little chance of success
(Collins English Dictionary)
---
Unlike modern navies where sailors stare at computer screens and launch high-tech missiles thousands of miles from their targets, the navies of old relied on cannons that had to be fired from a relatively close distance.
The real skill involved positioning the ship alongside an enemy vessel and hitting it before it could fire back. The further the distance from an enemy ship, the less accurate the shot was. In other words, a "long shot" was one that had a lesser chance of hitting its mark.
Ships sometimes also fired "a shot across the bow," which involved firing a shot in front of an enemy ship to force it to stop or alter course or simply to as warning to be prepared for battle. The bow (pronounced like the "ow" in owl) is the front section of a ship.
The expression "shot across the bow" is also used in a figurative sense to note a warning (Google chief executive Larry Page has fired a shot across the bow of Facebook, saying the social network is doing a really bad job on its products).
Without high technology such as radar, sailing ships found fighting at night particularly difficult. That meant they had to take "a shot in the dark," an expression that refers to a general attempt or a wild guess.
---
SYNONYMS
hundred-to-one shot, little chance, long odds, no chance, off-chance, one in a million, outside chance, slim chance, small chance
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I don't bother to play the lottery because it's such a long shot."
---
Thanks to Ingrid for suggesting today's word!
