dry hole
n.— «The Sunday night raid was what soldiers here call a “dry hole.” They received an intelligence tip, and it led to nothing.» —“Soldiers in Sunni Town Run Into Wall of Silence” by Josh White in Samarra, Iraq Washington Post Dec. 23, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A ballicater is a jagged wall of ice that forms on a frigid shore when pans of ice catch on rocks and slush freezes over them. A Canadian woman who grew up in Newfoundland says she’s warned never to go near one. Ballicater, spelled several ways...
The Merriam-Webster.com dictionary now includes an entry for TL;DR, also rendered as TLDR. It’s a speedy way of dismissing overlong text or introducing a shortened version of something. This useful locution also inspired AI;DR, short for AI;didn’t...