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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

no great shakes en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, uncountable) Something unexceptional, not noteworthy or special.
    • His tactic of pointing out the flaws of the Democrats does not mean that the Republican Party is any great shakes, as he intimates. 1980 August 30, Patrice Keegan, “Ebersole Misses the Point”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 4:
    • The iPhone's 2.0 megapixel camera is no great shakes, but it's good enough as cellphone cameras go. 2008 August 24, “Your definitive guide to the iPhone”, in The Times, Johannesburg, South Africa, archived from the original on 15 Sep 2008:
    • You're welcome to stay here, but this hut ain't no great shakes for such as you. 1898, Gertrude Atherton, chapter XIX, in The Valiant Runaways, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 210:
    • Scotland began well and then slowly faded. Haiti were no great shakes but they were getting on top. Wasteful, but better than their heavily fancied opponents. 2026 June 14, Tom English, “Why Haiti v Scotland was antidote to the ills of world football”, in BBC Sport:

Synonyms

not worth writing home about · comme ci comme ça · nothing to write home about