non-starter
/nɒnˈstɑːtə
/noun
1A person or animal that fails to take part in a race: Gawley wasn’t the only non-starter at Donington...
- The plane was actually built in 1932 and appeared at the Cleveland races that year but was a non-starter.
- McRae's younger brother, Alister, was a non-starter in the rally as he is still recovering from his own mountain-bike accident, which forced him out of San Remo and caused him to withdraw from the New Zealand event as well.
1.1 informal A person or plan that has no chance of succeeding or being effective: as a business proposition it’s a non-starter when it came to women, he was a non-starter...
- The ‘secret location’ plan is clearly a non-starter and should be ditched immediately.
- However, in effect this remained a non-starter.
- I regard the application under Order 12 rule 8 effectively as a non-starter.