0 an idea, plan, or person with no chance of success: --
The proposal was a non-starter from the beginning because there was no possibility of funding.
1 an idea, plan, or person that has no chance of success: --
For example, to visit each installation owned by the electricity industry would make the task almost a non-starter.
It is a non-starter so far as we are concerned.
If one can talk in terms of only 2% funds getting to their intended recipients, then this policy has proved to be a non-starter.
So why this hypocrisy of talking in terms of what is a non-starter and a very unreal situation?
The multilateral idea was a non-starter, not only for practical reasons but reasons of language, command, temperament and nationalities.
For us, data protection must be activated, otherwise this agreement is a non-starter.
That must be termed a precondition and makes any further meaningful negotiations a non-starter.
There are other human reasons why a local sales tax is apparently a non-starter.