to deal a bad hand
1
7.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
tener mala suerte
- Daylight deals a bad hand To a penguin who has laid too many bets
I think he was just a bad set of cards, just dealt a bad hand.
- I think he was just a bad set of cards, just dealt a bad hand.
- Through no fault of their own, through no fault of their own, right, they were dealt a bad hand, right?
- I mean, did you sort of feel that you'd been dealt a bad hand or did you just think, you know, you just accepted it and I'd it?
Examples
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Daylight deals a bad hand To a penguin that has laid too many bets
-
Daylight deals a bad hand To a penguin Who has laid too many bets
-
Through no fault of their own, through no fault of their own, right, they were dealt a bad hand, right?
-
Daylight deals a bad hand...
-
Daylight deals a bad hand To a penguin who has laid too many bets
-
I mean, did you sort of feel that you'd been dealt a bad hand or did you just think, you know, you just accepted it and I'd it?
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Sometimes, life can be unfair, and you might feel that you've dealt a bad hand when circumstances don't go your way.
-
After the layoffs, many employees felt they had been dealt a bad hand by the company's sudden decisions.
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When he lost his job and faced health issues, he realized he had been dealt a bad hand by fate.
Synonyms
1
6.7
Put someone into a difficult situation they cannot control because of bad luck
To end up by chance with an unpleasant task or in a worse position
To be given unfair, unpleasant tasks or treatment
Antonyms
How Harmful
∞
2.0
738
1.0
37
4.0
- Informal
1
7.9
108
2.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines literal meanings 'deal' (to hand out), 'bad' (poor), and 'hand' (a set of cards), so a learner can infer 'to give someone poor cards' and plausibly extend that to being placed in an unfavorable situation. Because this is a metaphorical extension from card-play and relies on mapping the literal image to life circumstances, the idiomatic sense is not fully predictable for all learners without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom deal a bad hand comes from card games. If the dealer deals you a weak set of cards, your hand, you have little chance to win, so the phrase means 'put someone in an unlucky or difficult situation'.