lay an egg

1. To fail, or to have one's efforts fall flat: “Jim tried to tell a few jokes, but each time he forgot the punch line and laid an egg.”

Idioms and Phrases

Fail, especially in a public performance; make a humiliating error. For example, Carol really laid an egg last night when she forgot her lines , or, as Variety had it in October 1929: “Wall Street Lays An Egg.” The term originated in the late 1800s in vaudeville and was extended to nontheatrical failures in the early 1900s.

Related Words

• enact
• perform
• play
• portray