shot in the dark

1. A wild, unsubstantiated guess; also, an attempt that has little chance for success. For example, It was a shot in the dark, but the engineers had a hunch that replacing the valve would make the system work, or You can try looking for your key on the beach, but I think it's a shot in the dark. [Colloquial; late 1800s]

Example Sentences

As hard rock and heavy metal gained a mainstream foothold in America thanks to MTV, Osbourne leaned into poppier metal sounds on 1983’s “Bark at the Moon” and 1986’s “Shot In The Dark.”

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“Power Up” also garnered Grammy nominations in 2022 for rock album, rock performance and music video for “Shot in the Dark.”

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It was a "shot in the dark," Wang said, given that the two scientists had never conducted a study in humans.

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“This feels like it’s a delay for delay’s sake and it’s a shot in the dark.”

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Yet Toyota isn’t taking a shot in the dark.

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