Talk:slim chance

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slim chance

SOP: slim + chance --Cova (talk) 11:27, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Delete Might be a good idea to include the collocation in usage examples or citations at the appropriate senses of [[slim]] and [[chance]]. DCDuring TALK 13:34, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Just one question, for the sense of slim, can anything other than a chance be slim? Mglovesfun (talk) 20:22, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Same or closely related concept: odds, possibility, hope, prospects.

Similar concept: evidence. DCDuring TALK 21:20, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

And with chance, also small chance, good chance, etc. Delete. Mglovesfun (talk) 21:58, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Delete. Perhaps misguidedly created to go with fat chance? Equinox ◑ 22:11, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Keep, it does not mean skinny+probability, it means unlikely.Lucifer (talk) 01:14, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

@ Lucifer, the fact it's possibly to misinterpret it by deliberately attempting to misinterpret it means nothing. Mglovesfun (talk) 12:35, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Right, I quote CFI: "For example, bank has several senses and parking lot has an idiomatic sense of "large traffic jam". However bank parking lot can't possibly mean "to put a large traffic jam in a financial institution". With such clearly wrong interpretations weeded out, the remaining choices are "place to park cars for any of several kinds of business" or "place to park cars by, for or on a river bank or similar (as opposed to, say, the hill parking lot)." The whole phrase could plausibly mean either, depending on context (though the first is likely far more common), and so the phrase is not idiomatic." - -sche (discuss) 18:34, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

But we have a sense at "slim" saying "tiny, very small", which also works in things like slim hope. Equinox ◑ 01:19, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

• Keep Purplebackpack89 ^{(Notes Taken) (Locker)} 04:14, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
• Comment. This does appear to be SOP wrt the required sense of "slim". Some dictionaries have this nonetheless: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/slim+chance, http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fat+chance in McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. (Checking other dictionaries is outside of CFI, I know.) --Dan Polansky (talk) 18:56, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

  It's outside of CFI for attestation, but not for idiomaticity. That almost matches the lemming test except that, as written, it applies only to specialized dictionaries for some reason. DAVilla 02:58, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

• Keep because if we're going to keep non-idiomatic phrasebook entries, we have no excuse not to keep a basic idiom. --Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 23:41, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

This gets about 400.000 Google hits, but "slight chance" gets over a million. Idiomatic and "often used" are not the same thing. Delete. To Μετάknowledge I wish to say that one stupidity should not be used to justify another. --Hekaheka (talk) 13:18, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

As far as stupidities go, I would rather you campaign against something that at least has a slim chance of ever being used (I'm illiterate). --Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 21:11, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Weak delete. DAVilla 02:55, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Wait, why is this not the OPPOSITE of fat chance? I'm undecided. DAVilla 06:03, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

• Unlikely or small chances can be little, outside, off, remote, slight, faint, long, low, slender, slim, thin, and odd, to mention those that appear among the top 100 collocations with chance at BNC. DCDuring TALK 03:57, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

  I would say the idiomatic phrases are outside chance and off chance. I'm not sure about faint chance and long chance where it seems we're missing more basic definitions. (I was surprised by remote and odd.) DAVilla 05:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Delete SOP.​—msh210℠ (talk) 21:29, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Delete. Fails the in between test [1] and others. —Internoob 19:24, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Deleted. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 03:50, 14 August 2012 (UTC)