Idiom
win by a nose
Meaning
To win by a small margin; to have a narrow victory.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The blue horse won by a nose.”
“I win by a nose when we play this card game.”
“She wins by a nose in the final seconds of the video game.”
“The race was incredibly close, but the runner from the local club managed to win by a nose.”
“After the judges counted the votes for the talent show, the singer managed to win by a nose against the dancer.”
“The two companies offered similar prices for the project, but the smaller firm won by a nose because of their better schedule.”
“The mayor won by a nose after the final district reported its results, beating his opponent by only twelve votes in a very tense election night.”
“Although the challenger fought with remarkable intensity throughout the final lap, the champion ultimately secured the victory by a nose.”
Examples
simple
“The blue horse won by a nose.”
“I win by a nose when we play this card game.”
“She wins by a nose in the final seconds of the video game.”
contextual
“The race was incredibly close, but the runner from the local club managed to win by a nose.”
“After the judges counted the votes for the talent show, the singer managed to win by a nose against the dancer.”
“The two companies offered similar prices for the project, but the smaller firm won by a nose because of their better schedule.”
“The mayor won by a nose after the final district reported its results, beating his opponent by only twelve votes in a very tense election night.”
complex
“Although the challenger fought with remarkable intensity throughout the final lap, the champion ultimately secured the victory by a nose.”
Origin
Derived from the parlance of the nineteenth-century turf, where a horse secures victory by the narrowest possible margin. The phrase describes a finish in which the tip of the winning animal's snout crosses the line slightly ahead of the runner-up, the length of the nose serving as the sole distinction between the first and second place.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated