"hiding to nothing" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "1": "en",
        "2": "hiding",
        "3": "",
        "4": "beating"
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      "expansion": "hiding (“beating”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "to",
        "3": "",
        "4": "as used to express gambling odds"
      },
      "expansion": "to (“as used to express gambling odds”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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 favored 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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hidings to nothing",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hidings to nothing"
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      "expansion": "hiding to nothing (plural hidings to nothing)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1915, James Forman Sloan, A. Dick Luckman, Tod Sloan, page 245",
          "text": "It would have been madness to encourage them to back the mare : in fact I was on a hiding to nothing whatever happened.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1931, The Atlantic Monthly, Making of America Project, page 60",
          "text": "No legitimate excuse for introduction existed, or could exist, and the odds looked like a hiding to nothing should Bayard attempt to force a meeting […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Dave Graves, A layman's guide to United Kingdom air traffic control, page 76",
          "text": "It is a nasty situation and DFR knows that he is on a good hiding to nothing. He sometimes feels that he is the least understood and most unloved ATCO in [the UK]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Robin Birn, The international handbook of market research techniques, page 543",
          "text": "This often makes it a nervous, hiding-to-nothing game in which disasters are so much more memorable than successes",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Frank L. Clarke with G. W. Dean and Kyle Gaius Oliver, Corporate collapse: accounting, regulatory and ethical failure, page 39",
          "text": "Company directors are on a hiding to nothing when it comes to trusting their reputations to the accounting statements for which they are responsible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost."
      ],
      "id": "en-hiding_to_nothing-en-noun-tjvVMeeK",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, British, informal) A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hiding to nothing"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hiding",
        "3": "",
        "4": "beating"
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      "expansion": "hiding (“beating”)",
      "name": "m"
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      "args": {
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      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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 favored 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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hidings to nothing",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hidings to nothing"
      },
      "expansion": "hiding to nothing (plural hidings to nothing)",
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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        "English terms with quotations"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1915, James Forman Sloan, A. Dick Luckman, Tod Sloan, page 245",
          "text": "It would have been madness to encourage them to back the mare : in fact I was on a hiding to nothing whatever happened.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1931, The Atlantic Monthly, Making of America Project, page 60",
          "text": "No legitimate excuse for introduction existed, or could exist, and the odds looked like a hiding to nothing should Bayard attempt to force a meeting […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Dave Graves, A layman's guide to United Kingdom air traffic control, page 76",
          "text": "It is a nasty situation and DFR knows that he is on a good hiding to nothing. He sometimes feels that he is the least understood and most unloved ATCO in [the UK]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Robin Birn, The international handbook of market research techniques, page 543",
          "text": "This often makes it a nervous, hiding-to-nothing game in which disasters are so much more memorable than successes",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Frank L. Clarke with G. W. Dean and Kyle Gaius Oliver, Corporate collapse: accounting, regulatory and ethical failure, page 39",
          "text": "Company directors are on a hiding to nothing when it comes to trusting their reputations to the accounting statements for which they are responsible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, British, informal) A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
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      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
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  "word": "hiding to nothing"
}