mug's game
1
9.9
- idiom
- UK
- Investing all your time in that failing project is just a mug's game with no payoff.
Examples
-
It's a mug's game to try to predict exactly which lies Romney will come up with and figure out how to counter them.
Blog text (33) -
Experience also suggests that strategic trade and industrial policy is a mug's game for big countries.
Academic text (1993) -
Trying to do so is a game that can't be won, a mug's game.
Academic text (1997) -
Squaring the circle is a mug's game.
Blog text (26) -
What the US has to learn is that continuing to allow petrol to be almost tax-free is a mug's game.
Blog text (18) -
Trying to win an argument with someone who won't listen is a mug's game that can be frustrating.
-
Believing that luck will make you rich without hard work is a classic mug's game.
Synonyms
22
6.6
A hopeless search for something that does not exist
12
7.2
A task that has no chance of success
4
3.9
An activity that uses your time but does not help you
A lot of activity or talk that makes no real progress
Antonyms
How Pointless
39
4.9
- Informal
12
7.2
- UK
1
9.9
- Informal
22
6.6
246
2.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
mug's + game
The sense of 'mug' required here is slang ('a gullible or foolish person'), which is not the prototypical meaning (a drinking cup or the verb 'to rob') that a B1 learner will necessarily know; combining 'mug' and 'game' therefore does not transparently yield 'a foolish or pointless activity'. This is an idiomatic, culture-specific use that requires lexical/colloquial knowledge beyond the literal constituents, so it would be opaque to most intermediate learners.
Etymology
Mug's game probably comes from gambling: a mug was someone easy to trick, so a mug's game was a game set up to fool them. That's why it now means 'a foolish or pointless activity'.