Crossword Genius

Confront keeping church in whack? Not a hope (3,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

fat chance

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'not a hope' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'confront keeping church in whack?' is the wordplay.
'confront' becomes 'face' (synonyms).
'keeping' indicates putting letters inside (some letters kept inside).
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'whack?' becomes 'tan' (tan can mean to beat or thrash).
'ch' going within 'tan' is 'tchan'.
'face' placed around 'tchan' is 'FAT CHANCE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fat chance that I've seen before include "Slim hope, paradoxically!" , "It will never happen!" , "that won't happen" , "Slender hope (odd though that sounds)" , "No likelihood at all!" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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