jerkwater idea
- noun
- /ˈdʒɜrkˌwɔtər aɪˈdiə/
- Informal
:
idea absurda
- The committee dismissed the proposal as just another jerkwater idea.
Examples
-
Stop coming to the meeting with jerkwater ideas that waste everyone's time.
-
What a silly jerkwater idea that was!
-
She was tired of hearing jerkwater ideas that had no practical value.
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That was a ridiculous jerkwater idea!
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She was tired of hearing jerkwater ideas that had no practical value.
-
Stop coming to the meeting with jerkwater ideas that waste everyone's time.
-
The committee dismissed the proposal as just another jerkwater idea.
Synonyms
An unimportant suggestion that people do not take seriously
Ideas that are not true and make no sense
An idea or plan that has no chance of success
Antonyms
How Serious
595
2.7
25
3.1
- Informal
121
3.9
39
5.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'jerkwater' denotes something small or insignificant, so a learner who knows that meaning plus 'idea' can compose them to mean an insignificant or trivial idea. The phrase follows a straightforward adjective + noun composition with no unpredictable idiomatic shift, so its meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
The phrase jerkwater idea comes from the old American word jerkwater, used for very small, unimportant towns where people had to 'jerk' a hand pump to get water. So a jerkwater idea is an idea seen as small, useless, or not important.