hiding to nothing

名词 n.
中文释义

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost. UK,idiomatic,informal
    — It would have been madness to encourage them to back the mare : in fact I was on a hiding to nothing whatever happened.

词形变化

hidings to nothing plural

词源

From horse racing, hiding (“beating”); to (“as used to express gambling odds”), e.g., 6 to 1. Literally, the phrase can be described as to bet on a contest whose outcome is at worst a beating, or at best nothing. A heavily favoured team in a sporting contest earns no credit for victory, but is shamed by defeat; this team is said to be on a hiding to nothing.
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