"not be able to hit the broad side of a barn" meaning in English

See not be able to hit the broad side of a barn in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-not be able to hit the broad side of a barn.wav Forms: cannot hit the broad side of a barn [present, singular, third-person], could not hit the broad side of a barn [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|cannot hit the broad side of a barn|-|could not hit the broad side of a barn|-|head=not be able to hit the broad side of a barn}} not be able to hit the broad side of a barn (third-person singular simple present cannot hit the broad side of a barn, no present participle, simple past could not hit the broad side of a barn, no past participle)
  1. (informal, idiomatic) To have very poor aim, such as while using firearms or in sports. Tags: idiomatic, informal, no-past-participle, no-present-participle Synonyms: not hit a cow's arse with a banjo Related terms: barn door Translations (have very poor aim): לא להיות מסוגל לפגוע בקיר של אסם (Hebrew), לא להצליח לקלוע אפילו לקיר של אסם (Hebrew)
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cannot hit the broad side of a barn",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "could not hit the broad side of a barn",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cannot hit the broad side of a barn",
        "2": "-",
        "3": "could not hit the broad side of a barn",
        "4": "-",
        "head": "not be able to hit the broad side of a barn"
      },
      "expansion": "not be able to hit the broad side of a barn (third-person singular simple present cannot hit the broad side of a barn, no present participle, simple past could not hit the broad side of a barn, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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            "Terms by semantic function"
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          "source": "w"
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          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant script codes",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hebrew translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "No, I am really not good at batting in baseball. I cannot hit the broad side of a barn, really.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "The new recruit is absolutely worthless with a rifle. Blimey, she wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn if I asked her to.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have very poor aim, such as while using firearms or in sports."
      ],
      "id": "en-not_be_able_to_hit_the_broad_side_of_a_barn-en-verb-FyAqA4ur",
      "links": [
        [
          "poor",
          "poor"
        ],
        [
          "aim",
          "aim"
        ],
        [
          "firearm",
          "firearm"
        ],
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To have very poor aim, such as while using firearms or in sports."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "barn door"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "not hit a cow's arse with a banjo"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "have very poor aim",
          "word": "לא להיות מסוגל לפגוע בקיר של אסם"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "have very poor aim",
          "word": "לא להצליח לקלוע אפילו לקיר של אסם"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-not be able to hit the broad side of a barn.wav",
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    }
  ],
  "word": "not be able to hit the broad side of a barn"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cannot hit the broad side of a barn",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "could not hit the broad side of a barn",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cannot hit the broad side of a barn",
        "2": "-",
        "3": "could not hit the broad side of a barn",
        "4": "-",
        "head": "not be able to hit the broad side of a barn"
      },
      "expansion": "not be able to hit the broad side of a barn (third-person singular simple present cannot hit the broad side of a barn, no present participle, simple past could not hit the broad side of a barn, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "barn door"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Hebrew terms with redundant script codes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Hebrew translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "No, I am really not good at batting in baseball. I cannot hit the broad side of a barn, really.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "The new recruit is absolutely worthless with a rifle. Blimey, she wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn if I asked her to.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have very poor aim, such as while using firearms or in sports."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "poor",
          "poor"
        ],
        [
          "aim",
          "aim"
        ],
        [
          "firearm",
          "firearm"
        ],
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To have very poor aim, such as while using firearms or in sports."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-not be able to hit the broad side of a barn.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ab/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-not_be_able_to_hit_the_broad_side_of_a_barn.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-not_be_able_to_hit_the_broad_side_of_a_barn.wav.mp3",
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    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "not hit a cow's arse with a banjo"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "have very poor aim",
      "word": "לא להיות מסוגל לפגוע בקיר של אסם"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "have very poor aim",
      "word": "לא להצליח לקלוע אפילו לקיר של אסם"
    }
  ],
  "word": "not be able to hit the broad side of a barn"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.