not by a long shot
Related to not by a long shot: not by a long chalk
not by a long shot
Not at all; not by great or any means. I'm not beaten yet, not by a long shot! Oh, we aren't finished cleaning, not by a long shot—we still have the entire downstairs to tackle.
See also: by, long, not, shot
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
not by a long shot
Fig. not by a great amount; not at all. Did I win the race? Not by a long shot. Not by a long shot did she complete the assignment.
See also: by, long, not, shot
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
not by a long shot
by no means. 1991 Zee Edgell In Times Like These Even though we had a very good crowd at the meeting tonight we weren't at full strength, not by a long shot.
See also: by, long, not, shot
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
long shot, (not by) a
(Not) a remote chance. Early firearms were notoriously inaccurate, and a shot from a distance rarely hit the target. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries a long shot meant just that, a shot fired from afar. By the late nineteenth century the term had been transferred to other improbable circumstances, such as a wild guess or, more specifically, a bet against considerable odds. From about 1865, however, it also meant far-fetched, as in this OED citation from Young Gentleman’s Magazine (1873): “This did not, however, suit her long-shot tactics.”
See also: long
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- not by a long chalk
- not take all day
- not be all day
- be/take all day, morning, etc.
- not be long for this world
- be not long for this world
- for (so) long
- for long
- will go a long way
- long since