poor/sad/sorry excuse for

idiom

: a poor example of
He's a sad excuse for a father.
This is a poor excuse for a term paper.
That pile of junk is a sorry excuse for a car!

Examples of poor/sad/sorry excuse for in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But in my opinion, the difficulty of these challenges would be a very poor excuse for not facing up to them. IEEE Spectrum, 25 Aug. 2017 Joe Biden, John Fetterman and their loved one's should not waste a moment on Carlson's passive-aggressive, bullying nonsense, a poor excuse for a human being, with no excuse for being so. Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2023 But the activists find this to be a poor excuse for drilling in places where people live, and insist that putting an end to drilling here can help lead to the end of drilling elsewhere. Emily Witt, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2022 Prince Charles is a depressingly poor excuse for a future king. Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2021 Those trees might look good on paper when companies do their carbon accounting, but a tree farm is a poor excuse for a forest. Andrew Moseman, Discover Magazine, 17 Dec. 2010

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'poor/sad/sorry excuse for.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near poor/sad/sorry excuse for

Cite this Entry

“Poor/sad/sorry excuse for.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poor%2Fsad%2Fsorry%20excuse%20for. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!