nonstarter
noun
non·start·er
ˌnän-ˈstär-tər 
1
: one that does not start
2
: someone or something that is not productive or effective
his son has been, in politics a nonstarter—
Anthony Lejeune
Anthony LejeuneExamples of nonstarter in a Sentence
She's the leading scorer among the team's nonstarters.
Recent Examples on the Web
But letting go of specialists is a nonstarter for many patients.
—Maria J Silveira, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2024
So often, sales teams rely on product pitches that target general business issues that rarely resonate and are, frankly, nonstarters.
—Andrew Kahl, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
House Republicans passed a partisan bill known as H.R. 2 that includes nonstarters for Democrats like resuming border wall construction, gutting the asylum system, and restricting a president's parole authority.
—Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 29 Feb. 2024
The phone sufficed in almost all those situations, though paying for dinner was more complicated and using a digital driver’s license to buy wine at a grocery store was a nonstarter.
—Yiwen Lu, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
Each made works of great beauty, great surprise, great political and social consequence, as well as a share of failures and nonstarters.
—Martha Schwendener, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
While there may be a group of House moderates ready to back the foreign aid bill, among many House conservatives, additional aid for Ukraine is a nonstarter.
—Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 13 Feb. 2024
Others have proposed an international force composed mostly of troops from Arab states, but the potential Arab participants have declared that a nonstarter.
—Daniel Byman, Foreign Affairs, 4 Jan. 2024
An independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is viewed as a nonstarter by Israel’s far-right government.
—Aamer Madhani, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2023
Maria J Silveira, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2024
So often, sales teams rely on product pitches that target general business issues that rarely resonate and are, frankly, nonstarters.
—Andrew Kahl, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
House Republicans passed a partisan bill known as H.R. 2 that includes nonstarters for Democrats like resuming border wall construction, gutting the asylum system, and restricting a president's parole authority.
—Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 29 Feb. 2024
The phone sufficed in almost all those situations, though paying for dinner was more complicated and using a digital driver’s license to buy wine at a grocery store was a nonstarter.
—Yiwen Lu, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
Each made works of great beauty, great surprise, great political and social consequence, as well as a share of failures and nonstarters.
—Martha Schwendener, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
While there may be a group of House moderates ready to back the foreign aid bill, among many House conservatives, additional aid for Ukraine is a nonstarter.
—Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 13 Feb. 2024
Others have proposed an international force composed mostly of troops from Arab states, but the potential Arab participants have declared that a nonstarter.
—Daniel Byman, Foreign Affairs, 4 Jan. 2024
An independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is viewed as a nonstarter by Israel’s far-right government.
—Aamer Madhani, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nonstarter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Nonstarter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonstarter. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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