Idiom
Chinaman's chance
Meaning
No chance; zero possibility.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He has not a Chinaman's chance of winning this race.”
“You have a Chinaman's chance of fixing that broken phone with just a hammer.”
“Without any experience or training, she realized she did not have a Chinaman's chance of getting the job.”
“The small company knew they didn't have a Chinaman's chance of winning the contract against a global corporation with ten times their budget.”
“Given the overwhelming evidence presented by the prosecution, the defense attorney knew his client did not have a Chinaman's chance of an acquittal.”
Examples
simple
“He has not a Chinaman's chance of winning this race.”
“You have a Chinaman's chance of fixing that broken phone with just a hammer.”
contextual
“Without any experience or training, she realized she did not have a Chinaman's chance of getting the job.”
“The small company knew they didn't have a Chinaman's chance of winning the contract against a global corporation with ten times their budget.”
complex
“Given the overwhelming evidence presented by the prosecution, the defense attorney knew his client did not have a Chinaman's chance of an acquittal.”
Origin
The phrase emerged in the 19th century as a reference to the socio-economic prospects of immigrant Chinese labour in the United States. It specifically addressed the likelihood of surviving the work assigned to these labourers, which frequently involved highly dangerous roles in the construction of the railroads. The term recorded a situation in which life was held as cheaply as the labour, surviving as an idiom for a slim or non-existent probability long after the railway tracks were laid.
Key words
Related idioms
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