non-starter

Related to non-starter: ascertainment, foreseer, extending

non-starter

1. An issue, topic, or person that makes no progress or shows little evidence of future success. I know you worked really hard on that proposal, but it's a non-starter—the committee refuses to even consider it. You want to be a doctor? Boy, that's a non-starter—you can't even handle the sight of blood! I wouldn't have too much faith in Bobby—he's a nonstarter, and this business will probably just become another in a long line of failures for him.
2. sports One who does not start the game or race. This phrase is often used in horse racing. I watched the race—what happened to our horse? Why was he a non-starter? I may be a non-starter now, but my goal is to supplant the first-string quarterback in time.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • be the talk of something
  • be the talk of the town
  • the talk of the town
  • argue about (something)
  • argue with
  • argue with (one)
  • argue with (someone) about (something)
  • talking head
  • dead horse
  • (one) could go (on) all day (about something)
References in periodicals archive
BJP leader Balbir Punj said third or fourth front will continue to be in news for "wrong reasons" but it will be a "non-starter".
"I won't ever say it completely (ruled out), but our fans don't want it so I think it's a non-starter."
In fact, only one study has shown that non-starter softball players may not share the same psychological profiles as their peers who start (Coker and Mickle, 2000).
But Alex Salmond insisted the idea was still a non-starter.
McCarthy said: "We don't pay that kind of money as we're not in that market or that pay league, so it's a non-starter in that sense.
But the notion of a 27-nation agreement on a concessionary tax regime to help meet carbon dioxide emissions reductions targets was deemed a non-starter. Mr Brown had raised the prospect of halving VAT on the "greenest" household goods, from fridges to insulation material.
They say that the issue is a non-starter for those who think of retirement as an abstraction.
When that approach proved a non-starter, Washington proposed holding a series of caucuses around the country to select a constitution-making body from another handpicked group.
Becoming a province is a non-starter. Lets focus on the flag.
In New York City, such a plan is a non-starter. What we did was put all of our venues on a North/South and East/West access, with the center being the Olympic Village.
But Ogden's solicitor Phillip Wilkinson told magistrates in Halifax: "Her husband was home so this was a non-starter."
The White House, he said, "winked at the most far-right House Republicans, who in turn, drafted a so-called faith bill that (or so they thought) satisfied certain fundamentalist leaders and Beltway libertarians but bore few marks of compassionate conservatism and was, as anybody could tell, an absolute political non-starter."
Paul, MN 55108) are investigating ways to improve the flavor and quality of cheddar cheese by adding non-starter lactic acid bacteria to the cheesemaking process.
But IT managers are thinking clusters and SANs, and SCSI (at least on the server-side) is a non-starter in cluster and SAN environments due to obvious distance and configuration limitations.
In the beginning, it didn't seem as though he would, especially in his days as a non-starter on his high school basketball team, or when not even small colleges could be tempted to offer him a basketball scholarship.