Idiom
hiding to nothing
Meaning
A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Trying to win that argument is a hiding to nothing.”
“The manager knew that taking on the project with such a small budget was a hiding to nothing.”
“By challenging the board of directors without any evidence, the young executive realized he was on a hiding to nothing and quietly withdrew his proposal.”
Examples
simple
“Trying to win that argument is a hiding to nothing.”
contextual
“The manager knew that taking on the project with such a small budget was a hiding to nothing.”
complex
“By challenging the board of directors without any evidence, the young executive realized he was on a hiding to nothing and quietly withdrew his proposal.”
Origin
The phrase originates from the vocabulary of British horse racing, where a hiding signifies a thorough beating. The structure employs the preposition to in the manner of gambling odds, such as six to one, suggesting a wager where the stakes are particularly poorly calculated.
The literal logic of the expression describes a contest in which the participant stands to gain nothing from a victory but is guaranteed a hiding in the event of failure. It is frequently applied to a heavily favoured sporting team whose success is dismissed as a foregone conclusion and whose defeat is treated as a professional humiliation. Under such conditions, one is said to be on a hiding to nothing.
Key words
Related idioms
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