can't punch (one's) way out of a paper bag
(redirected from couldn't punch our way out of a paper bag)can't punch (one's) way out of a paper bag
Extremely weak, ineffectual, or incompetent. You want to fight me? You can't punch your way out of a paper bag! Don't assign that project to her, she couldn't punch her way out of a paper bag!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
can't punch one's way out of a paper bag
Be inept, as in Ask him to program the VCR? He can't punch his way out of a paper bag. This hyperbolic term for extreme ineptitude originally was an expression of contempt for a weak or cowardly boxer. [Slang; c. 1910]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
- can't punch one's way out of a paper bag
- can't punch (one's) way out of a wet paper bag
- couldn't punch (one's) way out of a paper bag
- he, she, etc. couldn't punch his, her, etc. way out of a paper bag
- couldn't fight (one's) way out of a paper bag
- couldn't fight your way out of a paper bag
- couldn't fight (one's) way out of a wet paper bag
- weak sister
- a case of the blind leading the blind
- case of the blind leading the blind