cigar

Something that is well or reasonably priced. We need a good five-cent cigar, not more of these ridiculously overpriced items. Sheesh, food is so expensive these days! I miss the days when you could still get a good five-cent cigar. Grandpa would always complain about not being able to find a good five-cent cigar in the 21st century.

cliché A phrase said when one is almost correct or successful but ultimately fails. Cigars were once commonly used as prizes or awards. A: "Is the answer 73?" B: "Ooh, close, but no cigar. It's 75, actually." The team captain shoots the puck at the wide-open net, but it bounces off the post! Close, but no cigar! Those are all some very good guesses—close, but no cigar.

A phrase said when one is almost correct or successful but ultimately fails. Most commonly heard in the phrase "close but no cigar." Cigars were once commonly used as prizes or awards. You all had some very good guesses—they were close but no cigar.

Cliché Some effort came close to succeeding, but did not succeed. (Alludes to not quite winning a cigar as a prize.) Jill: How did you do in the contest? Jane: Close, but no cigar. I got second place.

A narrowly missed success, as in That ball was definitely out-close but no cigar. This interjection alludes to awarding a cigar to the winner of some competition, such as hitting a target. [Slang; early 1900s]

You say close but no cigar or nice try but no cigar to mean that someone is almost correct or that they have almost been successful, but are not quite correct or successful. He tried to break the record. It was close, but no cigar. Note: In the past, cigars were sometimes given as prizes at fairs. This expression may have been used if someone did not quite manage to win a prize.

Nearly successful, but not quite. This slangy Americanism dates from the first half of the twentieth century. It most likely came from the practice of giving a cigar as a prize to the winner of a contest, such as hitting the target in a carnival shooting gallery.

A sensibly affordable item. The remark “What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar” was popularized by Thomas Riley Marshall, vice president of the United States under Woodrow Wilson. In one account, he made the remark while presiding in the Senate after he heard a succession of senators enumerate what was lacking in the United States. The remark, which most likely originated with a 19th-century humorist named Kin Hubbard, was appropriated by several generations of Americans to complain obliquely about overpriced items of any sort.