Idiom: "Close, but no cigar!"

The day to start my holiday is moving closer and closer, and while I am doing lots of research on Japanese food in Tokyo, I am also researching for a new camera. Since I might be getting sponsors from my parents, I might as well buy a better one.

As usual, I was watching the videos of Kai from DigitalRevTV on Youtube, hoping to get some inspirations when I heard Kai using the phrase, "Close, but no cigar!"

It is actually quite a popular phrase nowadays, there are songs and videos using this idioms. It means

Fall just short of a successful outcome and get nothing for your efforts.

Many websites (including phrases.org.uk) claims that ...

"It is first recorded in print in Sayre and Twist's publishing of the script of the 1935 film version of Annie Oakley: "Close, Colonel, but no cigar!"  "

Image from National Cowboy Museum 

I tried to look for the script on the internet with no success. Well, I guess it doesn't matter, as long as we know how to use this idiom.

Let me give you one example:

Like the Hang Seng Index today, it tries to challenge 21000 point for the 3rd time in two months, but after hitting 20963, it came back down to 20840, missing the 21000 point by just 37 points. If you are reading the finance page tomorrow, you might just see the headline as, "Close, but no cigar!"



Resources:
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2010/06/website-digitalrev-camera-reviews.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ9J24wfd_s
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/close-but-no-cigar.html
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/close,_but_no_cigar
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026073/