dead heat
a race in which two or more competitors finish in a tie.
the result of such a race; tie.
Origin of dead heat
1Words Nearby dead heat
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use dead heat in a sentence
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.
Voting Rights Still Unfinished Business on Prairie View’s Agenda | Truthbetold | November 1, 2020 | TruthBeTold.newsThose contests are in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and even Texas, which are polling closer to a dead heat.
Politics Podcast: The Most Competitive Races In 2020 | Galen Druke | October 20, 2020 | FiveThirtyEightTwo October surveys conducted on behalf of an independent Kentucky media consortium have shown that the race is a dead heat.
Those Alison Lundergan Grimes Obituaries Were Premature—She’s Hanging On | Jonathan Miller | October 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe House freshman from Yell County is in a dead heat with Sen. Mark Pryor in the Arkansas Senate race.
The Wall Street Money Men Behind a Right-Wing Star | Patricia Murphy | September 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The race is currently considered a tossup by outside observers and polling has Ernst and Braley in a dead heat.
Exclusive: GOP Senate Candidate Caught Saying States Can Nullify Laws | Ben Jacobs | July 28, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhile 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.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete | Albert Bigelow PaineIn the case of an undoubted dead-heat the game should go on as if nothing had happened.
What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes | Dorothy Canfield FisherOh, the Thompsons won every cup until the Smalls arrived on a Monday; then 'twas a dead heat.
Cape Cod Stories | Joseph C. LincolnThe Shubert theatres and Carnegie libraries are running a dead heat in an earnest endeavor to perpetuate their respective names.
Nat Goodwin's Book | Nat C. GoodwinIn every race she is handicapped out of any chance of winning or even getting a dead heat.
Rambles in Womanland | Max O'Rell
British Dictionary definitions for dead heat
a race or contest in which two or more participants tie for first place
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with dead heat
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.
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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