unmitigated
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unmitigated disaster
cliché A total or absolute failure. The company's last product was an unmitigated disaster for them, a tremendously expensive flop that nearly drove them to bankruptcy.
See also: disaster, unmitigated
unmitigated gall
cliché Complete and outrageous insolence, impudence, or effrontery. I can't believe the unmitigated gall of the governor. How dare he blame the victims of this tragic accident for what happened?
See also: gall, unmitigated
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
unmitigated gall
Absolute impudence, out-and-out effrontery. The use of gall, which strictly speaking means the liver’s secretion, or bile, and its extension to bitterness of any kind, dates from about a.d. 1000. In late nineteenth-century America, however, it began to be used in the sense of “nerve” or “brazenness.” Its frequent pairing with unmitigated, meaning “unmodified” or “intense,” occurred in the twentieth century.
See also: gall, unmitigated
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer