"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

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. have a very poor aim, such as while using firearms or in sports. Tags: 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)

Download JSON data for not be able to hit the broad side of a barn meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "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"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English negative polarity items",
          "parents": [
            "Negative polarity items",
            "Terms by semantic function"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Hebrew terms with redundant script codes",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant script codes",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "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": [
        "have a 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-QDca8N3h",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "barn door"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "not hit a cow's arse with a banjo"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "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"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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 entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Hebrew terms with redundant script codes"
      ],
      "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": [
        "have a very poor aim, such as while using firearms or in sports."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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.