"Promised to be exciting, but ended being boring"

Question

Although it promised to be exciting, it ended being boring/dull/useless.

Any idiom for the above phrase?

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '13 at 15:25

3

It ended not with a bang but a whimper. (a slight adaptation of T S Eliot's famous stanza).

answered Mar 01 '13 at 15:25

Edwin Ashworth

83,272

Though not an idiom, Shakespeare's immortal words come to mind: "[Life] is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/ /Signifying nothing." – rhetorician Mar 01 '13 at 17:13
TS couldn't hold a candle to WS. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 02 '13 at 11:26

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '13 at 13:36

2

There are probably a slew of idioms for this. The first few I thought of were these:

It fizzled out.
It petered out.
It ended with a fizzle. [Not sure that this is really an idiom, but it's close.]
It was a dud.
It bombed. (def 2)

answered Mar 01 '13 at 13:36

All sort of fireworks (or not-fireworks). *Damp squib* falls into that category too. – Andrew Leach Mar 01 '13 at 15:28

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 01 '13 at 14:20

A single word suffices.

underwhelming

is a quasi-non-standard neologism since the 1970's. It was originally created as a snarky backformation for the other dierection from 'overwhelming', but it has since become accepted. For example,

It was a wasted evening at the symphony. The premier of the wunderkind's latest piano concerto was underwhelming.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 01 '13 at 18:07

1

If you're referring to something not living up to the hype, you could say:

All Sizzle, No Steak.

or

It failed to deliver.

answered Mar 01 '13 at 18:07

Chris Cudmore

2,499

"Promised to be exciting, but ended being boring"

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