крыть нечем

• КРЫТЬ НЕЧЕМ (кому) coll

[Invar; impers predic with быть]

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⇒ s.o. has no valid, convincing argument to offer as an objection to or refutation of some statement:

- (X-y) крыть нечем{{}}≈ X doesn't have a leg to stand on;

- there is nothing X can say;

- X has no (real) weapons to meet this argument;

- [when used as an indep. sent to admit concession] КШСЬЁ.

     ♦ "Не верю я, чтоб войсковое правительство спасло Дон! Какие меры применяются к тем частям, какие не желают вам подчиняться?.. Нечем вам крыть. А народ и фронтовые казаки за нас стоят" (Шолохов 3). "I don't believe the Army Government could save the Don! What measures are being taken against the units that don't want to obey you?...You haven't got a leg to stand on. The people and the frontline Cossacks are behind us!" (3a).

     ♦ "Мы по уши во лжи и лицемерии. Как же так? Как может такой человеческий материал в таких условиях создавать это самое, самое, самое...?" - "Одно дело - теория, другое - люди, исповедующие её и охраняющие", - говорю я неуверенно, ибо крыть тут нечем (Зиновьев 2). "We're up to our ears in lies and hypocrisy. How is this possible? How can it be that such human resources, working under such conditions, can create this thing which is the most this, the most that, that most everything...?" "Theory is one thing, and the people who preach it and defend it are another," I said, uncertainly, since I had no real weapons to meet this argument (2a).