rhyme or reason

rhyme or reason

The particular logic, sense, method, or meaning of a given situation, action, person, thing, group, etc. (Most often used in negative formations to indicate an absence or lack thereof.) Could someone please explain to me the rhyme or reason behind the program's selection process? I've looked over it several times, but there's no rhyme or reason to the agreement we were sent this morning.
See also: reason, rhyme
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

rhyme or reason

logical explanation or reason.
See also: reason, rhyme
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • neither rhyme nor reason
  • no rhyme or reason
  • rhyme
  • rhyme or reason, no
  • there's no rhyme or reason to/for something
  • (Someone or something) called, they want their (something) back!
  • a rotten apple spoils the (whole) bunch
  • a rotten apple spoils the (whole) bushel
  • bushel
  • one rotten apple spoils the (whole) barrel
References in periodicals archive
"He damaged the cars and there is no rhyme or reason for it."
If, as the saying goes, when America sneezes Britain catches cold - it can only be good for us too..I suppose some people just like to hate without rhyme or reason and skin colour is as good an excuse as any.
Without apparent rhyme or reason, twelve life-size beasts populate Zaiser's menagerie, among them a flamingo, a panther, a polar bear, a crocodile, and a kangaroo keeping one another company.
Yet on a daily basis, it's mangled without rhyme or reason. I hear what you're saying, at the end of the day, something needs to be done about it.
It's hard to imagine their motive, unless they just plain enjoy the capricious exercise of power, bestowing good fortune on some and bad fortune on others without any need for a rhyme or reason. In a world where people get a kick out of being arbitrary, no property right is ever safe.
And there's a report of a West Side apartment building with a 62 percent rise for no rhyme or reason, although the average market value for Class II properties was 7.96 percent.
At General Mills' carefully orchestrated outdoor gallery, every work has its own rhyme or reason.
No Rhyme or Reason? I'VE been reading in the ECHO of late About the rhyming poetry debate I've mulled it over quite a lot Should it rhyme or should it not?
If there's a rhyme or reason to the Ashland Oil art collection, it's the strong splashes of color, line and texture marching across the company walls and through its foyers.