Word.ws English Dictionary

not win for losing

not win for losing verb: to repeatedly fail in one's gambles or efforts.

Verb

not win for losing

  1. (US, idiomatic) To repeatedly fail in one's gambles or efforts.
    • Figure 1 depicts a number of these forces, and suggests the ways in which the Individualistic Ethic "could not win for losing."1910, Hartley Withers, The Meaning of Money, page 42
    • Manboy grinned, and looked up as Two-Way joined them, laughing. "Gabe, you is just naturally a Jonah to your own self, and can't win for losing no matter what.1936, Reuben Davis, Butcher Bird, page 14

Questions about not win for losing

What does not win for losing mean?
Not win for losing means to repeatedly fail in one's gambles or efforts.
What part of speech is not win for losing?
Not win for losing is a verb.

Words near not win for losing in the dictionary

  1. not touch with a ten-foot pole
  2. not up
  3. not want to do that
  4. not wanted on voyage
  5. not while pussy's a cat
  6. not win for losing
  7. not wise
  8. not with it
  9. not with the program
  10. not worth a brass farthing
  11. not worth a Continental

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: not win for losing (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-not win for losing.ogg.

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