half-baked excuse
- noun
- Informal
:
excusa poco convincente
- Tired of her son's half-baked excuses, she insisted on the real reason for his bad grades.
Examples
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That was a half-baked excuse for missing the meeting.
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The manager was unimpressed with the employee's half-baked excuse for arriving late again.
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His half-baked excuse for missing the meeting failed to convince anyone.
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He always comes up with half-baked excuses when he's late.
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He offered a half-baked excuse for missing the meeting, claiming his cat needed a haircut.
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Her half-baked excuse about forgetting the assignment didn't convince the teacher.
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When asked why he was late, he stumbled over a half-baked excuse that made no sense at all.
Synonyms
1
8.5
A reason that seems good but is actually wrong
1
9.9
A rude way to say someone's reason is weak and not acceptable
A weak, unconvincing reason someone gives for not doing something
A weak reason someone gives to avoid blame
A weak reason used so often people no longer believe it
A simple idea about why something happened that misses important facts
A false or silly story people tell to avoid blame
A false story someone gives to avoid blame
A silly made-up reason someone gives to avoid blame
A weak excuse that people do not believe
How Convincing
Surface Forms
Morphology
half-baked + excuse
The phrase literally combines 'half' (partly) + 'baked' (cooked) to mean 'partly cooked', and that cooking-domain image is metaphorically extended to ideas or plans to mean 'not fully developed' or poorly thought out. Because understanding the MWE requires this cross-domain metaphorical mapping (cook → prepare an idea) rather than purely literal composition, a B1 learner who knows the constituents could often infer the general sense but might not get the exact pragmatic nuance without exposure.
Etymology
Half-baked excuse comes from the picture of food that is half-baked, partly cooked and weak inside, like a cake that did not finish in the oven. So a half-baked excuse is an excuse that is 'poorly thought out' and 'unconvincing'.