an apology for

an apology for

A poor example of a certain thing. That skinny kid is an apology for a linebacker. I gave you a low grade because the drivel you submitted was an apology for a real paper!
See also: apology
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

an apology for

a very poor example of.
1998 Imogen de la Bere The Last Deception of Palliser Wentwood It's an apology for a bridge, built of left-over stones.
See also: apology
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

an apology for something

a very poor example of something: I’m sorry this is a bit of an apology for lunch — we’ll have a proper meal tonight.
See also: apology, something
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • an apology for something
  • apology
  • be an apology for
  • if you’ll pardon the expression
  • if you'll pardon the expression
  • youll
  • cut out to be
  • cut out to be (something)
  • throw (something) back in (one's) face
  • throw something back in someone's face
References in classic literature
The first part commences with an apology for his colloquial style; he is, as he has always been, the enemy of rhetoric, and knows of no rhetoric but truth; he will not falsify his character by making a speech.
Though we have properly enough entitled this our work, a history, and not a life; nor an apology for a life, as is more in fashion; yet we intend in it rather to pursue the method of those writers, who profess to disclose the revolutions of countries, than to imitate the painful and voluminous historian, who, to preserve the regularity of his series, thinks himself obliged to fill up as much paper with the detail of months and years in which nothing remarkable happened, as he employs upon those notable aeras when the greatest scenes have been transacted on the human stage.
Martin Henry, chairman of the review panel, said his goal was to secure an apology for survivors and help implement measures to prevent further abuse.
"We wanted an apology from the whole board, and more importantly we wanted an apology for the bullying that hundreds of people have experienced and also for the harm they have suffered, and the apology falls short of that.
On April 30, a video message and statement of Qadri were released in which the one firebrand patron-in-chief of the TLP announced his retirement from the movement and issued an apology for incendiary remarks made by him during a protest against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi.
On the centurion anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians in particular, Arabs at large, and vast swathes of the population called on the British government to issue an apology for its state building project in Palestinian territories in 1917.
Some of the demands made in the list of 31 points like an apology for the 1994 Civil War, which was fought under the rule of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, have recently been fulfilled.
Seldom does a week go by without somebody demanding an apology for something somebody else did: "The paper owes its readers an apology for printing such rubbish," a letter in the People's Forum screams.
was losing 100 million dollars every month because of suspended supply routes, analysts say, may have been designed to minimise the political cost of an apology for the Obama presidential campaign.
Brooks sagaciously predicted that the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would provide the foundation for an apology for slavery.
Nevertheless, the success of an apology for public health collective trauma can never be guaranteed, even when its conditions are fully observed.
"He clearly hasn't retracted the statement about Alan being unfit so it's not an apology for the main offence caused - and then he widens it to question the fitness of other referees, so he seems to be opening another can of worms which I don't think is very helpful at all."
There are those who resist the idea of an apology for slavery for much different reasons.
There's really no good reason to oppose an apology for slavery, and as a gesture of goodwill it could prove healing to some, help them past their attitudes and help improve race relations.