damp squib
- something meant but failing to impress or succeed.
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Origin of damp squib
First recorded in 1965–70
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for damp squib
Historical Examples
It must be owned that they were decidedly daring, yet in the nature of damp-squib affairs, as it turned out.