Hit-or-miss means done without a plan, so it works only some of the time. Sometimes it comes out well and sometimes it does not, and nobody can say which in advance.
The phrase describes a method rather than a single result: a hit-or-miss approach to spelling, a hit-or-miss selection of cakes, service that is frankly hit-or-miss. It is a mild criticism, and the mildness is the point — it says unreliable without saying bad, since half of the time the thing does work. It sits before a noun with hyphens and after a verb with or without them. The related idea in one word is haphazard.
1adjectivehit-or-missUnplanned and therefore unreliable, working only some of the time.
“Their quality control is hit-or-miss at best.”
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word