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Origin of Can’t Win for Losing. This expression become popular around the 1960s, but may have existed before then. It comes from the literal meaning, which is that losing over and over again prevents a person from winning. The main idea is that a string of bad luck or misfortune has beset someone and this keeps him or her from succeeding.
We have a little lady in our office who just couldn't win for losing. She didn't have to holler "come you 'leven." She always drew it. and again on page 215: Somehow Mr. Hanny couldn't win for losing. Also, from "Canyon Splits With Warriors at Local Field," in the [Abilene, Texas] McMurry War Whoop (May 5, 1928): "Can't win for losing." That ...
- Elephind and Google Books searches dig up examples of the expression going back to the 1920s. The oldest match is from Johnny Dope, " Squints at Sp...
- As a teenager in the 60s I was a training jockey on the horse racing circuit and that's where I learned this phrase. I believe it originated from h...
- It is an expression of the unfairness of the universe that the speaker is experiencing. He is saying that in a fair universe, you allow for losses,...
- Sven's answer was informative. My late dad used the phrase multiple times when we were in Texas in 70's and 80's. He used it in the sense that no...
- My mother used this expression, and, yes, I think it was in the sixties. It meant just that the person was a sad sack, but I always understood it l...
- This is a fairly old expression, I heard my Dad say it in circa 1950. I googled a few explanations from searched phrase, and I didn't encounter...
Nov 23, 2022 · Examples of using “Can’t Win For Losing” in sentences “Every action I take ends in failure, I can’t win for losing, and I’m ready to give up.” “Maybe this isn’t the right job for me. It’s like I can’t win for losing.” “Continuous rejection is making me feel depressed. I can’t win for losing.”
- Is there a deeper meaning of the idiom “Can’t win for losing”?No, there is no deeper meaning to the expression. This idiom describes that you can’t win because you are losing continuously or having a piece of...
- When can you use the idiom “Can’t win for losing”?You can use the idiom “Can’t win for losing” when you are having a bad time and can’t get anything right. If you are trying to do something and w...
- Where did the expression “can’t win for losing” originates from?The expression “Can’t win for losing” originates from the 1950s in America.
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When one says “I can’t win for losing,” they mean “I can’t win because I’m losing all the time.”. The confusing part of the phrase is the use of the preposition for to mean ‘because of,’ a sense primarily found in idioms such as this one. Do not search for deeper meaning. There is none. It is usually used after a series of ...
Jun 19, 2022 · What does Can’t Win for Losing mean? Can’t win for losing refers a popular United States-based colloquialism, used for expressing a series of bad luck and a lack of success. A good example for a situation, which may invoke the feeling is a Pay to Win videogame, where a user truly “Can’t win for losing” resulting in a lack of Winner ...
Mar 19, 2002 · The elaboration "You can't win for losing," with its added play on logic, was around in the 1960s. It means that losing keeps you from winning; you can't win because things keep going wrong. People would say it when something unexpected or a bit of bad luck spoiled their plans. Actually, the word 'for' may be taken out of context here.
Jan 28, 2015 · The authors, Barbara Ann Kipfer and Robert L. Chapman, give this example: “We busted our humps, but we just couldn’t win for losing.”. Kipfer and Chapman date the expression from the 1970s, but we’ve found earlier examples in Internet searches. The earliest is from a 1955 issue of the Postal Supervisor, a journal of the National ...
