"bet a dollar to a doughnut" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly adapted from \"bet dollars to buttons\" and \"bet dollars to dumplings\" that appeared in the 1880s, meaning \"to feel almost certain\" because the dollars are bet against something nearly worthless and perhaps shaped like a zero.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bets a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "betting a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bet a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bet a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "*",
        "3": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "bet a dollar to a doughnut (third-person singular simple present bets a dollar to a doughnut, present participle betting a dollar to a doughnut, simple past and past participle bet a dollar to a doughnut)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1911, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 19, in Captain Scraggs",
          "text": "I bet a dollar to a doughnut that fellow Lopez sold us out.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Walter Alleyne Ireland, Beating 'em to it: Or, The Sultan and the Sausages",
          "text": "There's places where a dago-dazzler doesn't cut much ice, but it was dollars to doughnuts that the Sultan'd have a kindly feeling for it when I had Mungo explain that it was from the President of the U. S. A., telling him to treat his Uncle Phineas good and white, and he'd do the same by him some day.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 119",
          "text": "‘Even if Kong follows, he has to travel overland, and it’s dollars to doughnuts we beat him.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988 April 25, John F. Burns, “Canada Losing Patience With U.S. on Acid Rain”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-04-25",
          "text": "[S]aying that environmental concerns are a major factor . . . Mr. Mulroney said \"you can bet a dollar to a doughnut\" that acid rain would feature in the campaign.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 September 13, Red Shannon, “The Greatest Athlete Who Never Was”, in Bleacher Report, retrieved 2015-04-25",
          "text": "I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut Usain Bolt is not the fastest human on the planet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To declare with confidence."
      ],
      "id": "en-bet_a_dollar_to_a_doughnut-en-verb-GF05iZTp",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "declare",
          "declare"
        ],
        [
          "confidence",
          "confidence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, mildly humorous) To declare with confidence."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "a pound to a penny"
        },
        {
          "word": "bet a dollar to a dime"
        },
        {
          "word": "bet one's boots"
        },
        {
          "word": "bet one's bottom dollar"
        },
        {
          "word": "bet the farm"
        },
        {
          "word": "take to the bank"
        },
        {
          "word": "bet a dollar to a donut"
        },
        {
          "word": "wager a dollar to a doughnut"
        },
        {
          "word": "bet dollars to doughnuts"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "humorous",
        "mildly"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Stuart Berg Flexner"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "bet a dollar to a doughnut"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly adapted from \"bet dollars to buttons\" and \"bet dollars to dumplings\" that appeared in the 1880s, meaning \"to feel almost certain\" because the dollars are bet against something nearly worthless and perhaps shaped like a zero.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bets a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "betting a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bet a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bet a dollar to a doughnut",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "*",
        "3": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "bet a dollar to a doughnut (third-person singular simple present bets a dollar to a doughnut, present participle betting a dollar to a doughnut, simple past and past participle bet a dollar to a doughnut)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1911, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 19, in Captain Scraggs",
          "text": "I bet a dollar to a doughnut that fellow Lopez sold us out.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Walter Alleyne Ireland, Beating 'em to it: Or, The Sultan and the Sausages",
          "text": "There's places where a dago-dazzler doesn't cut much ice, but it was dollars to doughnuts that the Sultan'd have a kindly feeling for it when I had Mungo explain that it was from the President of the U. S. A., telling him to treat his Uncle Phineas good and white, and he'd do the same by him some day.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 119",
          "text": "‘Even if Kong follows, he has to travel overland, and it’s dollars to doughnuts we beat him.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988 April 25, John F. Burns, “Canada Losing Patience With U.S. on Acid Rain”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-04-25",
          "text": "[S]aying that environmental concerns are a major factor . . . Mr. Mulroney said \"you can bet a dollar to a doughnut\" that acid rain would feature in the campaign.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 September 13, Red Shannon, “The Greatest Athlete Who Never Was”, in Bleacher Report, retrieved 2015-04-25",
          "text": "I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut Usain Bolt is not the fastest human on the planet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To declare with confidence."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "declare",
          "declare"
        ],
        [
          "confidence",
          "confidence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, mildly humorous) To declare with confidence."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "humorous",
        "mildly"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Stuart Berg Flexner"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "a pound to a penny"
    },
    {
      "word": "bet a dollar to a dime"
    },
    {
      "word": "bet one's boots"
    },
    {
      "word": "bet one's bottom dollar"
    },
    {
      "word": "bet the farm"
    },
    {
      "word": "take to the bank"
    },
    {
      "word": "bet a dollar to a donut"
    },
    {
      "word": "wager a dollar to a doughnut"
    },
    {
      "word": "bet dollars to doughnuts"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bet a dollar to a doughnut"
}