to don't have a clue
80
6.4
- idiom
:
no tener ni idea
- No, I don't have a clue.
- don't have a clue about science
Yeah, we don't have a clue where this this other space could be.
- Yeah, we don't have a clue where this this other space could be.
- I think most of the Wall Street analysts don't have a clue what they're talking about.
- And they may say I didn't have a clue.
- I have to say I just don't have a clue, OK?
- You know, I don't have, I don't have a clue.
- Well, one answer which wouldn't be totally dishonest is I don't have a clue.
- He's essentially, he's saying you don't have a clue who you are or what's going on.
- Did he, you know, he he he took it, but he didn't know what he was doing, didn't have a clue.
- There's also no end of problems that are very interesting, some of which you've asked me, but we don't have a clue how to solve them.
- Starmer doesn't have a clue in where his priorities lie and he hasn't done that for a long time.
- One would think that they used the best that they had to, to to help me how to become an American and they didn't have a clue.
- But she had an entropic pregnancy, which means that the, I think there's a very, you know, non medical way of describing because I don't have a clue.
- And then there's me who doesn't have a clue, but I had the most amazing mentor and she was just like, Patricia, let me tell you, this is how you've got to do it.
Examples
-
I think most of the Wall Street analysts don't have a clue what they're talking about.
-
It's amazing to me that you don't have a clue.
Fiction book (2002) -
Once again, he did not have a clue as to the nature of women.
Fiction book (1997) -
But she sees now that Rachel does not have a clue.
Fiction book (1992) -
This guy doesn't have a clue about the middle class.
-
I have to say I just don't have a clue, OK?
-
To be honest, we don't have a clue.
-
- Look, Chief, I told you, we don't have a clue.
-
As anxious as they were to make a deal, they didn't have a clue as to what they were buying.
Fiction book (1999) -
I don't have a clue about how to solve this problem.
Synonyms
279
3.6
To have no idea about something
7
8.6
I do not know
5
7.5
To not know anything at all about something
4
9.0
I do not know
1
9.9
Tells others you have no idea and is rude
1
9.7
Have almost no idea about something
To not understand anything about a subject
To not understand anything in a talk or explanation
Antonyms
How Certain
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from the parts: 'clue' (a piece of evidence/knowledge) + 'have' (to possess) with negation 'don't', yielding 'to possess no knowledge'. This is a transparent and frequent collocation in English (e.g. 'have no idea', 'haven't got a clue') so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Don't have a clue comes from an old story about a hero who used a ball of thread to find his way out of a maze, and that small ball later became a clue meaning a 'hint'. So, if you don't have a clue you have no hint, in other words 'no idea'.