Is there any idiom or expression that would mean "all my efforts wasted"?

Question

I'm looking for an idiom or expression that would mean "all one's efforts wasted".

I have found "to have one's cake dough". Can I use it for "all my efforts wasted" too? ( A non-native friend told me it is used for saying " all 'my plans' failed", not 'my efforts'.)

I want to use it in:

John spared no efforts to provide his son with anything he needed for going to a medical college, but his son disappointed him by going to an art college. John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and felt ----(=all those efforts were wasted).

PS:

In Persian we say "one's yarns changed back into cotton".

(You know that cotton is changed into yarn by spinning, using a spindle, that takes a long time and efforts, so "all my yarns changed back into cotton" means "all my efforts wasted".)

Answer 1

Your example works really well with in vain:

John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and felt all his efforts had been in vain.

More than one dictionary uses similar examples to illustrate in vain. Take Merriam-Webster (vain):

―in vain

1 : to no end : without success or result < her efforts were in vain>

See Oxford Learners too, “All our efforts were in vain.” The connotation is though not quite that of the Persian idiom, that one’s work was undone, but that it was unsuccessful, and hence a waste of time and effort.

Answer 2

A good phrase for this is all for naught.

Naught just means "nothing", so it's another way of saying all your efforts had no result.

"John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and felt his efforts were all for naught."

Answer 3

Try go down the drain.

John's efforts went down the drain.

Also, turn to dust

John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and felt his efforts were turned to dust.

Answer 4

They went up in smoke.

go up in smoke
If a plan or some work goes up in smoke, it is spoiled or wasted.
Then his business went bankrupt and 20 years of hard work went up in smoke.

go up in smoke. (n.d.) Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. (2006). Retrieved May 5 2016 from http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/go+up+in+smoke

Answer 5

Although not a particularly poetic idiom, you can just say it was all for nothing.

Or, if you want to put emphasis on needing to recover from a failed effort, you can say back to the drawing board or back to square one.

Start again on a new design or plan after the failure of an earlier attempt.

Source.

Answer 6

I would have used to no avail.

to no avail - without any benefit or result

The boy pushed against the door to no avail - something heavy was holding it shut.

For your specific sentence I would rearrange it to something like:

John spared no efforts to provide his son with anything he needed for going to a medical college but to no avail, his son disappointed him by going to an art college. ...

Answer 7

If you specifically want an echo of the Persian expression, you might say your plans have unraveled or come undone, both of which convey the sense of something completed working its way backwards to an incomplete state.

Answer 8

I like the phrase "an exercise in futility" to describe a lost cause.

John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and felt his efforts were an exercise in futility.

Answer 9

Simon Bolivar's last words were supposedly "I have plowed the sea."

Answer 10

What about down the toilet

e.g. My business is going down the toilet after all these years...

Answer 11

Two options:

John spared no efforts to provide his son with anything he needed for going to a medical college, but his son disappointed him by going to an art college. John accepted his son's choice but was really upset that his sacrifices were just a fool's errand.

Or

John spared no efforts to provide his son with anything he needed for going to a medical college, but his son disappointed him by going to an art college. John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and felt as though he had been chasing the white whale. (a reference to Herman Melville's Moby Dick)

Answer 12

I think "fruitless" works well here.

John's efforts to get his son to law school proved fruitless.

Answer 13

It's a bit crude and graphic, but my favourite British idiom for something completely futile is "pissing into the wind":

• "You can try to change her mind if you like, but you'll be pissing in the wind."

• "The government is spitting in the wind if they think a few regulations will stop multinational companies from avoiding tax." / "Trying to get a pay increase here is like pissing in the wind."

Apparently it's an Italian proverb and may be in American English also.

Defined to me as "to waste time trying to achieve something futile".

Answer 14

You could try: Out the window, or maybe Pointless!

Answer 15

I haven’t been able to come up with a metaphorical idiom which is exactly equivalent to the spinning one, but some of the phrases that might be used in British English are:

‘but was really upset that his plans had come to naught.’

‘but was really upset that he had built his house upon the sand’ which is an allusion to Matthew 7:42-72

‘but was really upset that his house of cards had come tumbling down’: similar to house built on sand, lots of effort going into something which has a poor foundation, which then fails. Both of these have the effect of suggesting the son is seen as the weak foundation, which may not be what you require.

but was really upset ‘that it had all come crashing down around his ears’, again this is similar to the previous two, an is analogous to a poorly built structure. This one implies that the loss is felt to be catastrophic.

‘but was really upset to realise he had counted his chickens before they hatched’ would mean that he had built up his expectations on something that wasn’t within his control.

but was really upset and felt it had all come apart at the seams’ where ‘it’ signifies the plan for his son’s future and is analogous to a poorly made garment.

NB It is possible you have an incorrect word in your spinning example, if by ‘yard’ you mean ‘spun thread’, I think you want ‘yarn’, but if you mean ‘lengths [of yarn], ‘yards’ might be acceptable.

Answer 16

you could use a phrase that also implies the dad had a plan. "...felt his plans were of mice & men"

It references a longer quote "the best laid plans of mice & men often go awry" You can see the dictionary give some info: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/the-best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men-often-go-awry

Answer 17

I like the one I believe coined by Douglas Adams: "You are rearranging deck-chairs on the Titanic."

Depending on the audience, you can substitute other doomed liners: the Lusitania, the Andrea Doria, even the Costa Concordia.

Answer 18

The common ones you already got are: all your work is "down the drain"/ "down the toilet"/ "all in vain"

"back to square one" covers it if you're required to make another try.

"spinning your wheels" describes both your situation and the process.

If you're in a big predicament or you've run out of options/time then you're colloquially: "up s### creek [without a paddle]"/ "up the creek"/ "s### out of luck" / "SOL"

Answer 19

It’s probably used more to describe things, nerves, and dreams (but perhaps the Father in your scenario had had some dreams about his Son being a doctor!), but “Shot {all} to Hell/pieces” can also work to describe “ruined, wasted” time and effort, as in the top definition for “Shot to Hell” from ‘Urban Dictionary’:

My computer just froze and I hadn't back[ed] up my data, three hours of writing a thousand-word term paper just shot to hell.

In your example sentence it would give:

“John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and couldn’t help but feeling that his efforts (and dreams for his Son) had just been shot all to Hell/pieces.”

Especially if Father and Son have been arguing about this issue all along, “beat[ing] a dead horse” is an expression that already contains the notion of “wasted effort” in it (and would therefore not require you to use “his efforts” in the sentence, as “Shot all to Hell” does).

Regardless of whether the Son’s artistic preferences have always known to Dad or the announcement was a total surprise, you could consider using it, although it would require you describe how the Father now feels about his past effort (perhaps by changing “felt” to “wondered”) because otherwise it will seem as if the Father is still trying to convince the Son:

“John accepted his son's choice but was really upset and wondered if he’s just been beating a dead horse for all these years.

beat a dead horse US informal (UK informal flog a dead horse)
to waste effort on something when there is no chance of succeeding ...

(from Cambridge Dictionaries Online)

Answer 20

I know this question has an accepted answer, but I had a need for a similar phrase (in a slightly different context). I settled on paraphrasing Shakespeare, the original being "All sound and fury, signifying nothing." Wikipedia - Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5.

In the father/son context, "John accepted his son's choice, but saw that his words had been only sound and fury, resulting in nothing." Not perfect for this context, but a nicely poetic idiom nonetheless.

Answer 21

His efforts went down a rathole

DOWN THE RATHOLE idiom (chiefly AmEng)

For a worthless purpose or purposes: Seeing your inheritance disappear down the rathole.

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary

The metaphor comes from old farmhouses and settlers' cabins with wooden floors. Inevitably, holes would appear as knots dropped out of the surrounding wood. The holes were called "rat holes" because rodents used them for coming and going.

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