A: How did you do in the contest?

B: Close, but no cigar. I got second place. The champion is a boy from the medical school.

A: Is his name Howard?

B: Close, but no cigar. It’s Harold.

Note: This idiom means “to fall short of a successful outcome” or “close call.” The phrase, and its variant “‘nice try, but no cigar,” are of U.S. origin and date from the early 1900s. Much like fairs today, booths would be set up and fair workers would host overpriced, nearly-impossible-to-win games for happy fairgoers to try. Games of strength, accuracy, and skill were played by men and women, and, occasionally — just enough to keep people interested — an individual would win cigars as prizes. This expression may have been used if someone did not quite manage to win a prize.