snowball's chance in hell
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
[edit]- (informal, hyperbolic, idiomatic, somewhat derogatory, somewhat vulgar) Almost no chance at all of an occurrence or success.
- Synonyms: snowball's chance (ellipsis), snowball's chance in an oven
- That small boat has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving the hurricane.
- 2025 January 9, Justin Trudeau, quotee, “Trudeau: Trump threatened to annex Canada to distract from tariffs impact”, in The Guardian[1], sourced from Reuters, →ISSN:
- Trudeau, who this week said there was not “a snowball’s chance in hell” that Canada would become part of the US, reiterated to CNN that Ottawa would impose countermeasures if Trump made good on this threat.
Usage notes
[edit]- Often, the expression is used in the negative for even more emphasis (implying that the referent has even less chance of success than a snowball in hell because the heat would melt it near-immediately).
- That small boat doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving the hurricane.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]little or no likelihood of occurrence or success
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See also
[edit]Categories:
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals
- English multiword terms
- English informal terms
- English hyperboles
- English idioms
- English derogatory terms
- English vulgarities
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English singularia tantum