# not have a prayer

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/not-have-a-prayer
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To have no chance or possibility, usually in the face of peril or adversity.

## Examples

- Without enough practice, he does not have a prayer of winning.
- I do not have a prayer of finishing this book by tomorrow morning.
- She does not have a prayer of fixing that broken phone herself.
- The team was so exhausted by the final quarter that they did not have a prayer of catching up to their opponents.
- If you forget to bring your passport to the airport, you do not have a prayer of boarding that international flight today.
- The small local shop does not have a prayer of staying open now that a massive supermarket has started building next door.
- Given the severity of the storm and the lack of proper equipment, the small vessel did not have a prayer of reaching the harbor safely.

## Origin

The phrase implies that the individual’s circumstances are so remarkably bleak that even divine intervention would prove insufficient to rectify them. It suggests a situation where the standard recourse to a deity has been rendered redundant by the sheer scale of the impending failure.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.