a swing and a miss

An attempt to do something that ultimately fails. Likened to a baseball batter who swings at but fails to hit the ball. Boy, that joke was a swing and a miss—not one person in the room laughed. Ooh, a swing and a miss, huh, buddy? Well, there's plenty of other girls to hit on here—maybe one of them will give you their number. Good luck to you—my last attempt to get a raise out of the boss was a swing and miss.