dampsquib (pluraldamp squibs)
- (literally) Afirework that has been wet and therefore fails togo off correctly.
- (idiomatic, by extension) Anything that does notworkproperly, orfails to come up toexpectations; adud.
1858 May 29,The Launceston Examiner, Tasmania, page 6, column 2:The anonymous oracle, the author of this pamphlet, is an example of entertaining dullness. He has manufactured a verydamp squib; he is a serious man in motley; and practical ideas occasionally drop in among his fantastic vaticinations.
1999 June 30, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting John Calder, “Arts and science ‘damp squib’”, inThe Guardian[1]:It sounds very token, anotherdamp squib which will probably end up benefiting more bureaucrats than artists or scientists.
2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal'sTheo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, inThe Guardian[2]:Arsène Wenger confessed: "The result was not an accurate indication of the match." Certainly, at half-time it seemed unlikely that Arsenal would catch fire so spectacularly because the first half was adamp squib of a display from Wenger's team, as Newcastle initially showed no ill-effects from their Old Trafford ordeal.
2012 December 30, Mark O'Connell, “Both Flesh and Not by David Foster Wallace – review”, inThe Observer[3],→ISSN:A third collection of David Foster Wallace's essays contains genius anddamp squibs[.]
2013, Alistair Moffat, Susan Mansfield, Alexander Smith,The Great Tapestry of Scotland: The Making of a Masterpiece:That whole campaign was adamp squib, they cranked it up as a real possibility that Scotland might win, and when we actually got there it didn't happen like that, and everybody came home quite early with their tails between their legs.
2017 July 17, Yasmeen Serhan, quotingGuy Verhofstadt, “One Issue That Could Break the Brexit Talks”, inThe Atlantic[4]:Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, took the criticism one step further, dubbing the U.K. proposal a “damp squib” that reduces Europeans to “the status of ‘third-country nationals’ in the U.K., with fewer rights than British citizens are offered throughout the EU.”
2024 April 16, Arwa Mahdawi, “‘How did Kamala Harris go from being a rising star to a damp squib?”, inThe Guardian[5]:How did Kamala Harris go from being a rising star to adamp squib? [title]
firework that fails to go off, due to wetting
anything that doesn’t work properly
