Nonstarter

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A project that has no chance of success.

    "The problem with the CRFB and CBO ideas is that they would be nonstarters politically."

  2. 2
    a horse that fails to run in a race for which it has been entered wordnet
  3. 3
    A horse that does not run in a race for which it has been entered.
  4. 4
    a person with a record of failing; someone who loses consistently wordnet
  5. 5
    A loser; a person who is bound to fail.

    "But Berg was just a fool, a buffoon, a nonentity, a nonstarter so inept he took naps under bear bair."

Synonyms

All synonyms
failurefailureloserunsuccessful person

Example

More examples

"The problem with the CRFB and CBO ideas is that they would be nonstarters politically."

Etymology

From non- + starter.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.