Chinaman's chance
Chinaman's chance noun: no chance; zero possibility.
Noun
Chinaman's chance (plural Chinamen's chances)
- No chance; zero possibility.
- And if I weren’t here now, Driscoll and Ann wouldn’t have a Chinaman’s chance.’1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 103
- The Chinese, who in the mid-19th century had come to America by the tens of thousands and helped build the transcontinental railway, were on the receiving end of much prejudicial legislation. . . . In the slang wisdom of the day, sojourners from the Middle Kingdom "didn't stand a Chinaman's chance."2005 January 29, Richard Corliss, “Anna May Wong Did It Right”, in Time
- Synonyms:
- Chinaman's chance in hell
Synonyms of Chinaman's chance
Forms of Chinaman's chance
| plural | Chinamen's chances |
|---|
Origin of Chinaman's chance
Originally a reference to the socio-economic prospects of immigrant Chinese labour in the United States in the 19th century, which often involved highly dangerous work on the railroads.
Questions about Chinaman's chance
- What does Chinaman's chance mean?
- Chinaman's chance means no chance; zero possibility.
- What part of speech is Chinaman's chance?
- Chinaman's chance is a noun.
- What is the plural of Chinaman's chance?
- The plural of Chinaman's chance is Chinamen's chances.
Words near Chinaman's chance in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Chinaman's chance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-Chinaman's chance.ogg.
Cite this entry: “Chinaman's chance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chinaman%27s_chance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.