What is an equivalent phrase to “to shoot one's wad” when referring to using up all of your “ammo”, clout, goodwill, etc too early? Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara Planned maintenance scheduled April 17/18, 2019 at 00:00UTC (8:00pm US/Eastern)What is the proper phrase for being in one's official limits, probably when quoting something?
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What is an equivalent phrase to “to shoot one's wad” when referring to using up all of your “ammo”, clout, goodwill, etc too early?
Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara
Planned maintenance scheduled April 17/18, 2019 at 00:00UTC (8:00pm US/Eastern)What is the proper phrase for being in one's official limits, probably when quoting something?
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The phrase to "shoot your wad" is an old phrase meaning to use or overuse something too early. The phrase was used recently by an older US senator and it was misinterpreted by many as having sexual connotations.
Seeing as it obviously has sexual connotations to many, what are some better phrases that mean the same thing?
An example sentence might be, "The Democrats didn't have much credibility when it came to opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, as they had already shot their wad when opposing earlier, much less controversial candidates."
phrase-requests
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
The phrase to "shoot your wad" is an old phrase meaning to use or overuse something too early. The phrase was used recently by an older US senator and it was misinterpreted by many as having sexual connotations.
Seeing as it obviously has sexual connotations to many, what are some better phrases that mean the same thing?
An example sentence might be, "The Democrats didn't have much credibility when it came to opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, as they had already shot their wad when opposing earlier, much less controversial candidates."
phrase-requests
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
It's not an expression I recognise, I like the suggestion by @HotLicks that it's a gambling metaphor but I do wonder whether it comes from the days of muzzle loading firearms where fabric wadding was used to keep the gunpowder in place. If you 'shot your wad' it might mean that you would have used up all your balls and continued to shoot for effect even though you had only powder and wadding left.
– BoldBen
yesterday
@BoldBen - I Ngrammed the term and the earliest (rather ambiguous) gun reference I found was about 10 years earlier than the first references, which were more along the lines of "exhausted" or "used up" in a more general sense. And it occurred to me that a "wad" is a wad of chewing tobacco, so "shoot one's wad" may refer to spitting out a wad of used-up tobacco.
– Hot Licks
yesterday
1
Asking for a list of phrases is not a useful question for this site. You can ask for the etymology of the phrase you've given—or you can ask for a specific phrase that means the same thing, but (for some clearly defined reason) is an objectively better phrase. All of this assumes that there will be a single answer that you would be able to pick as the correct answer. But simply wanting other phrases is too broad.
– Jason Bassford
yesterday
@JasonBassford Seems to me like you are straining the rules just enough to find a reason to opine on this question. My reason for needing a better phrase was clearly outlined in the question. I edited my question title from "What are some" to "What is an" anyway. But it seems to me that asking for a single phrase is an even worse question since any number of phrases could subjectively be better. A correct answer would provide a few phrases that mean the same thing and still match the criteria.
– Kyle
5 hours ago
Oops!! Above I meant that the gun references were ten years later than the more generic uses.
– Hot Licks
5 hours ago
add a comment |
The phrase to "shoot your wad" is an old phrase meaning to use or overuse something too early. The phrase was used recently by an older US senator and it was misinterpreted by many as having sexual connotations.
Seeing as it obviously has sexual connotations to many, what are some better phrases that mean the same thing?
An example sentence might be, "The Democrats didn't have much credibility when it came to opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, as they had already shot their wad when opposing earlier, much less controversial candidates."
phrase-requests
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
The phrase to "shoot your wad" is an old phrase meaning to use or overuse something too early. The phrase was used recently by an older US senator and it was misinterpreted by many as having sexual connotations.
Seeing as it obviously has sexual connotations to many, what are some better phrases that mean the same thing?
An example sentence might be, "The Democrats didn't have much credibility when it came to opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, as they had already shot their wad when opposing earlier, much less controversial candidates."
phrase-requests
phrase-requests
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 5 hours ago
Kyle
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
asked 2 days ago
KyleKyle
91
91
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Kyle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
It's not an expression I recognise, I like the suggestion by @HotLicks that it's a gambling metaphor but I do wonder whether it comes from the days of muzzle loading firearms where fabric wadding was used to keep the gunpowder in place. If you 'shot your wad' it might mean that you would have used up all your balls and continued to shoot for effect even though you had only powder and wadding left.
– BoldBen
yesterday
@BoldBen - I Ngrammed the term and the earliest (rather ambiguous) gun reference I found was about 10 years earlier than the first references, which were more along the lines of "exhausted" or "used up" in a more general sense. And it occurred to me that a "wad" is a wad of chewing tobacco, so "shoot one's wad" may refer to spitting out a wad of used-up tobacco.
– Hot Licks
yesterday
1
Asking for a list of phrases is not a useful question for this site. You can ask for the etymology of the phrase you've given—or you can ask for a specific phrase that means the same thing, but (for some clearly defined reason) is an objectively better phrase. All of this assumes that there will be a single answer that you would be able to pick as the correct answer. But simply wanting other phrases is too broad.
– Jason Bassford
yesterday
@JasonBassford Seems to me like you are straining the rules just enough to find a reason to opine on this question. My reason for needing a better phrase was clearly outlined in the question. I edited my question title from "What are some" to "What is an" anyway. But it seems to me that asking for a single phrase is an even worse question since any number of phrases could subjectively be better. A correct answer would provide a few phrases that mean the same thing and still match the criteria.
– Kyle
5 hours ago
Oops!! Above I meant that the gun references were ten years later than the more generic uses.
– Hot Licks
5 hours ago
add a comment |
It's not an expression I recognise, I like the suggestion by @HotLicks that it's a gambling metaphor but I do wonder whether it comes from the days of muzzle loading firearms where fabric wadding was used to keep the gunpowder in place. If you 'shot your wad' it might mean that you would have used up all your balls and continued to shoot for effect even though you had only powder and wadding left.
– BoldBen
yesterday
@BoldBen - I Ngrammed the term and the earliest (rather ambiguous) gun reference I found was about 10 years earlier than the first references, which were more along the lines of "exhausted" or "used up" in a more general sense. And it occurred to me that a "wad" is a wad of chewing tobacco, so "shoot one's wad" may refer to spitting out a wad of used-up tobacco.
– Hot Licks
yesterday
1
Asking for a list of phrases is not a useful question for this site. You can ask for the etymology of the phrase you've given—or you can ask for a specific phrase that means the same thing, but (for some clearly defined reason) is an objectively better phrase. All of this assumes that there will be a single answer that you would be able to pick as the correct answer. But simply wanting other phrases is too broad.
– Jason Bassford
yesterday
@JasonBassford Seems to me like you are straining the rules just enough to find a reason to opine on this question. My reason for needing a better phrase was clearly outlined in the question. I edited my question title from "What are some" to "What is an" anyway. But it seems to me that asking for a single phrase is an even worse question since any number of phrases could subjectively be better. A correct answer would provide a few phrases that mean the same thing and still match the criteria.
– Kyle
5 hours ago
Oops!! Above I meant that the gun references were ten years later than the more generic uses.
– Hot Licks
5 hours ago
It's not an expression I recognise, I like the suggestion by @HotLicks that it's a gambling metaphor but I do wonder whether it comes from the days of muzzle loading firearms where fabric wadding was used to keep the gunpowder in place. If you 'shot your wad' it might mean that you would have used up all your balls and continued to shoot for effect even though you had only powder and wadding left.
– BoldBen
yesterday
It's not an expression I recognise, I like the suggestion by @HotLicks that it's a gambling metaphor but I do wonder whether it comes from the days of muzzle loading firearms where fabric wadding was used to keep the gunpowder in place. If you 'shot your wad' it might mean that you would have used up all your balls and continued to shoot for effect even though you had only powder and wadding left.
– BoldBen
yesterday
@BoldBen - I Ngrammed the term and the earliest (rather ambiguous) gun reference I found was about 10 years earlier than the first references, which were more along the lines of "exhausted" or "used up" in a more general sense. And it occurred to me that a "wad" is a wad of chewing tobacco, so "shoot one's wad" may refer to spitting out a wad of used-up tobacco.
– Hot Licks
yesterday
@BoldBen - I Ngrammed the term and the earliest (rather ambiguous) gun reference I found was about 10 years earlier than the first references, which were more along the lines of "exhausted" or "used up" in a more general sense. And it occurred to me that a "wad" is a wad of chewing tobacco, so "shoot one's wad" may refer to spitting out a wad of used-up tobacco.
– Hot Licks
yesterday
1
1
Asking for a list of phrases is not a useful question for this site. You can ask for the etymology of the phrase you've given—or you can ask for a specific phrase that means the same thing, but (for some clearly defined reason) is an objectively better phrase. All of this assumes that there will be a single answer that you would be able to pick as the correct answer. But simply wanting other phrases is too broad.
– Jason Bassford
yesterday
Asking for a list of phrases is not a useful question for this site. You can ask for the etymology of the phrase you've given—or you can ask for a specific phrase that means the same thing, but (for some clearly defined reason) is an objectively better phrase. All of this assumes that there will be a single answer that you would be able to pick as the correct answer. But simply wanting other phrases is too broad.
– Jason Bassford
yesterday
@JasonBassford Seems to me like you are straining the rules just enough to find a reason to opine on this question. My reason for needing a better phrase was clearly outlined in the question. I edited my question title from "What are some" to "What is an" anyway. But it seems to me that asking for a single phrase is an even worse question since any number of phrases could subjectively be better. A correct answer would provide a few phrases that mean the same thing and still match the criteria.
– Kyle
5 hours ago
@JasonBassford Seems to me like you are straining the rules just enough to find a reason to opine on this question. My reason for needing a better phrase was clearly outlined in the question. I edited my question title from "What are some" to "What is an" anyway. But it seems to me that asking for a single phrase is an even worse question since any number of phrases could subjectively be better. A correct answer would provide a few phrases that mean the same thing and still match the criteria.
– Kyle
5 hours ago
Oops!! Above I meant that the gun references were ten years later than the more generic uses.
– Hot Licks
5 hours ago
Oops!! Above I meant that the gun references were ten years later than the more generic uses.
– Hot Licks
5 hours ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
"Blow your bankroll" might be an alternative.
PokerKing:
What is a "bankroll" in poker? What is the definition of the term
"bankroll" in poker?
In poker, a "bankroll" is the amount of money that a person has
allocated to play poker with.
Definition of Bankroll - Poker Dictionary - Illustration of Dollar
BillsFor instance - let's say that you are a young (21 years old)
poker player who grinds $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em games online. In
order to be properly bankrolled, you would need a minimum of $10,000
set aside in your "bankroll" to comfortably play at that level.
You have a total of $20,000 set aside as your poker "bankroll". You
also have $10,000 set aside for living expenses, which you have vowed
not to use to play poker with.
A professional poker player should have a certain amount of money set
aside (usually six months worth of expenses) for living expenses.
The problem that many players have is that their living expenses and
poker bankroll are intermingled, and they play with both their living
expenses and poker bankroll money. This leads to situations where
players "go broke" and need to borrow money just to continue paying
their expenses, let alone play poker.
"Bet the farm" is another option.
Urban Dictionary:
To put up everything you have, while gambling in a card game.
Mike bluffed with his ace high and bet the farm losing everything.
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
add a comment |
These I would say are idiomatic expressions with the intended meaning:
have shot one's bolt
have used up all one's ammunition
These main the opposite:
have a last bolt left in one's quiver
have a last arrow left in one's quiver
have (one) last shot left
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
add a comment |
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2 Answers
2
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2 Answers
2
active
oldest
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active
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active
oldest
votes
"Blow your bankroll" might be an alternative.
PokerKing:
What is a "bankroll" in poker? What is the definition of the term
"bankroll" in poker?
In poker, a "bankroll" is the amount of money that a person has
allocated to play poker with.
Definition of Bankroll - Poker Dictionary - Illustration of Dollar
BillsFor instance - let's say that you are a young (21 years old)
poker player who grinds $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em games online. In
order to be properly bankrolled, you would need a minimum of $10,000
set aside in your "bankroll" to comfortably play at that level.
You have a total of $20,000 set aside as your poker "bankroll". You
also have $10,000 set aside for living expenses, which you have vowed
not to use to play poker with.
A professional poker player should have a certain amount of money set
aside (usually six months worth of expenses) for living expenses.
The problem that many players have is that their living expenses and
poker bankroll are intermingled, and they play with both their living
expenses and poker bankroll money. This leads to situations where
players "go broke" and need to borrow money just to continue paying
their expenses, let alone play poker.
"Bet the farm" is another option.
Urban Dictionary:
To put up everything you have, while gambling in a card game.
Mike bluffed with his ace high and bet the farm losing everything.
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
add a comment |
"Blow your bankroll" might be an alternative.
PokerKing:
What is a "bankroll" in poker? What is the definition of the term
"bankroll" in poker?
In poker, a "bankroll" is the amount of money that a person has
allocated to play poker with.
Definition of Bankroll - Poker Dictionary - Illustration of Dollar
BillsFor instance - let's say that you are a young (21 years old)
poker player who grinds $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em games online. In
order to be properly bankrolled, you would need a minimum of $10,000
set aside in your "bankroll" to comfortably play at that level.
You have a total of $20,000 set aside as your poker "bankroll". You
also have $10,000 set aside for living expenses, which you have vowed
not to use to play poker with.
A professional poker player should have a certain amount of money set
aside (usually six months worth of expenses) for living expenses.
The problem that many players have is that their living expenses and
poker bankroll are intermingled, and they play with both their living
expenses and poker bankroll money. This leads to situations where
players "go broke" and need to borrow money just to continue paying
their expenses, let alone play poker.
"Bet the farm" is another option.
Urban Dictionary:
To put up everything you have, while gambling in a card game.
Mike bluffed with his ace high and bet the farm losing everything.
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
add a comment |
"Blow your bankroll" might be an alternative.
PokerKing:
What is a "bankroll" in poker? What is the definition of the term
"bankroll" in poker?
In poker, a "bankroll" is the amount of money that a person has
allocated to play poker with.
Definition of Bankroll - Poker Dictionary - Illustration of Dollar
BillsFor instance - let's say that you are a young (21 years old)
poker player who grinds $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em games online. In
order to be properly bankrolled, you would need a minimum of $10,000
set aside in your "bankroll" to comfortably play at that level.
You have a total of $20,000 set aside as your poker "bankroll". You
also have $10,000 set aside for living expenses, which you have vowed
not to use to play poker with.
A professional poker player should have a certain amount of money set
aside (usually six months worth of expenses) for living expenses.
The problem that many players have is that their living expenses and
poker bankroll are intermingled, and they play with both their living
expenses and poker bankroll money. This leads to situations where
players "go broke" and need to borrow money just to continue paying
their expenses, let alone play poker.
"Bet the farm" is another option.
Urban Dictionary:
To put up everything you have, while gambling in a card game.
Mike bluffed with his ace high and bet the farm losing everything.
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
"Blow your bankroll" might be an alternative.
PokerKing:
What is a "bankroll" in poker? What is the definition of the term
"bankroll" in poker?
In poker, a "bankroll" is the amount of money that a person has
allocated to play poker with.
Definition of Bankroll - Poker Dictionary - Illustration of Dollar
BillsFor instance - let's say that you are a young (21 years old)
poker player who grinds $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em games online. In
order to be properly bankrolled, you would need a minimum of $10,000
set aside in your "bankroll" to comfortably play at that level.
You have a total of $20,000 set aside as your poker "bankroll". You
also have $10,000 set aside for living expenses, which you have vowed
not to use to play poker with.
A professional poker player should have a certain amount of money set
aside (usually six months worth of expenses) for living expenses.
The problem that many players have is that their living expenses and
poker bankroll are intermingled, and they play with both their living
expenses and poker bankroll money. This leads to situations where
players "go broke" and need to borrow money just to continue paying
their expenses, let alone play poker.
"Bet the farm" is another option.
Urban Dictionary:
To put up everything you have, while gambling in a card game.
Mike bluffed with his ace high and bet the farm losing everything.
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
answered 5 hours ago
Hot LicksHot Licks
19.6k23777
19.6k23777
add a comment |
add a comment |
These I would say are idiomatic expressions with the intended meaning:
have shot one's bolt
have used up all one's ammunition
These main the opposite:
have a last bolt left in one's quiver
have a last arrow left in one's quiver
have (one) last shot left
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
add a comment |
These I would say are idiomatic expressions with the intended meaning:
have shot one's bolt
have used up all one's ammunition
These main the opposite:
have a last bolt left in one's quiver
have a last arrow left in one's quiver
have (one) last shot left
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
add a comment |
These I would say are idiomatic expressions with the intended meaning:
have shot one's bolt
have used up all one's ammunition
These main the opposite:
have a last bolt left in one's quiver
have a last arrow left in one's quiver
have (one) last shot left
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
These I would say are idiomatic expressions with the intended meaning:
have shot one's bolt
have used up all one's ammunition
These main the opposite:
have a last bolt left in one's quiver
have a last arrow left in one's quiver
have (one) last shot left
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
answered 2 days ago
CerberusCerberus
54.4k2121210
54.4k2121210
add a comment |
add a comment |
Kyle is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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It's not an expression I recognise, I like the suggestion by @HotLicks that it's a gambling metaphor but I do wonder whether it comes from the days of muzzle loading firearms where fabric wadding was used to keep the gunpowder in place. If you 'shot your wad' it might mean that you would have used up all your balls and continued to shoot for effect even though you had only powder and wadding left.
– BoldBen
yesterday
@BoldBen - I Ngrammed the term and the earliest (rather ambiguous) gun reference I found was about 10 years earlier than the first references, which were more along the lines of "exhausted" or "used up" in a more general sense. And it occurred to me that a "wad" is a wad of chewing tobacco, so "shoot one's wad" may refer to spitting out a wad of used-up tobacco.
– Hot Licks
yesterday
1
Asking for a list of phrases is not a useful question for this site. You can ask for the etymology of the phrase you've given—or you can ask for a specific phrase that means the same thing, but (for some clearly defined reason) is an objectively better phrase. All of this assumes that there will be a single answer that you would be able to pick as the correct answer. But simply wanting other phrases is too broad.
– Jason Bassford
yesterday
@JasonBassford Seems to me like you are straining the rules just enough to find a reason to opine on this question. My reason for needing a better phrase was clearly outlined in the question. I edited my question title from "What are some" to "What is an" anyway. But it seems to me that asking for a single phrase is an even worse question since any number of phrases could subjectively be better. A correct answer would provide a few phrases that mean the same thing and still match the criteria.
– Kyle
5 hours ago
Oops!! Above I meant that the gun references were ten years later than the more generic uses.
– Hot Licks
5 hours ago