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View synonyms for dead heat

dead heat

noun

  1. a race in which two or more competitors finish in a tie.
  2. the result of such a race; tie.


dead heat

noun

    1. a race or contest in which two or more participants tie for first place
    2. a tie between two or more contestants in any position
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of dead heat1

First recorded in 1790–1800
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Idioms and Phrases

A contest in which the competitors are equally matched and neither can win; a tie. For example, The two companies are in a dead heat to get a new personal computer on the market . This term comes from 18th-century British horse racing and is still part of racing terminology. It later was transferred to other kinds of competition.
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Example Sentences

It was an outlier compared with the average, which showed a dead heat, but — as with a number of her outlier polls — it proved correct.

Recent polls indicated that Tuesday’s contest is a statistical dead heat.

Those contests are in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and even Texas, which are polling closer to a dead heat.

Two October surveys conducted on behalf of an independent Kentucky media consortium have shown that the race is a dead heat.

The House freshman from Yell County is in a dead heat with Sen. Mark Pryor in the Arkansas Senate race.

The race is currently considered a tossup by outside observers and polling has Ernst and Braley in a dead heat.

While some House members are struggling mightily, others are keeping their races at at least a dead heat.

The campaign for president has already begun, and the New Jersey governor is in a dead heat with Hillary Clinton.

The interest in the game became quiescent, and he set to work to finish the story at a dead heat.

In the case of an undoubted dead-heat the game should go on as if nothing had happened.

Oh, the Thompsons won every cup until the Smalls arrived on a Monday; then 'twas a dead heat.

The Shubert theatres and Carnegie libraries are running a dead heat in an earnest endeavor to perpetuate their respective names.

In every race she is handicapped out of any chance of winning or even getting a dead heat.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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Dead Heartdead horse