fat chance

Idioms

Very little or no possibility, as in A fact chance he has of coming in first, or You think they'll get married? Fat chance! A related expression is a fat lot, meaning “very little or none at all,” as in A fat lot of good it will do her. The first of these slangy sarcastic usages dates from the early 1900s, the second from the 1890s.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I hoped that didn't really mean: fat chance.

From Salon • Jan. 3, 2021

He was hardly serious, but regardless, fat chance, and not just because Hollywood isn’t known to atone.

From New York Times • Nov. 29, 2017

But in a season when the Cubs seem post-title flat and no one in the National League is clearly better than Washington, the Nats have a big fat chance, just like 2014.

From Washington Post • Jun. 1, 2017

Delegates, though, said there’s fat chance of that happening after this week.

From Washington Times • Jul. 21, 2016

A fat chance I had of laying my hands on a gun.

From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023