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there's no telling
It's impossible to determine, as in There's no telling how many children will come down with measles, or There's no telling what will happen in the next episode of that soap opera. This idiom uses telling in the sense of “reckoning,” a usage dating from the late 1300s.
Example Sentences
With confidence in U.S. economic growth shaken and an international trade system that has lasted since World War II — and that advantaged the U.S. more than any other country on Earth — thrown into upheaval for no detectable rational reason, there’s no telling about the long-term ramifications of Trump’s trade war.
It certainly doesn’t imply any endorsement of Navarro’s disastrous trade-war policies, although there’s no telling how far his ideas got hijacked or mistranslated on their way through Donald Trump’s brain.
Beyoncé being Beyoncé, there’s no telling what kind of musical and visual spectacular she’s got in store — though she may have provided a hint in December with the characteristically intricate halftime show she performed during a Christmas Day NFL game.
“There’s no telling how many lives would be tragically cut short and how many communities would have been devastated had these drugs been distributed,” Bonta said.
“That prayer was for me. My son had already passed, but I had to be built up before the doctor told me what happened. If I hadn’t done that first, there’s no telling how it would’ve gone.”
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