draw a blank
verbEtymology
Probably from the idea of drawing of a blank (losing) ticket in an old-fashioned lottery.
Definitions
To be unable to recall a required piece of information.
- I should know that person's name, but I'm drawing a blank.
To fail
To fail; not to find anything; to produce no successful response.
- "Oh," she replied, "when I came to think of it, I saw, that you were right. I thought, 'twas quite likely it [the lottery ticket] would draw a blank.[…]"
- When she brainstormed about what else she would do, where else she would go, her mind drew a blank.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for draw a blank. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA