Imagine you have an important offer to post to a client, and they must have it tomorrow. You work hard all day to get it finished, and now all you need to do is send it. The postbox is cleared at 6pm and you run to make it… arriving just in time to see the postman driving away! You were:
close, but no cigar = knapp daneben ist auch vorbei
The phrase comes from the US and originally dates from the mid-20th century. While there is no real evidence of its origin, the most likely explanation is that fairground stalls used to give out cigars as prizes. So if you were playing a game at the fair where you had to shoot at a target and you missed by only a little bit – close, but no cigar.