won't wash

1. Will not stand up to examination, is unconvincing, will not work, as in That excuse about your sick aunt just won't wash. This expression originally alluded to a fabric that would not stand up to washing but by the late 1800s was used figuratively for other kinds of failure.

Related Words

• extraordinary 
• implausible 
• impossible 
• improbable 
• incredible 
• mind-boggling 
• strange 
• unbelievable 
• unheard-of 
• unimaginable 
• unthinkable