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back the wrong horse



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Idioms and Phrases

Also, bet on the wrong horse . Guess wrongly or misjudge a future outcome, as in Jones garnered only a few hundred votes; we obviously backed the wrong horse , or Counting on the price of IBM to rise sharply was betting on the wrong horse . Transferred from wagering money on a horse that fails to win the race, a usage dating from the late 1600s, this term is widely applied to elections and other situations of uncertain outcome.
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Example Sentences

He hates losing, and he clearly doesn’t want to back the wrong horse as he tries to maintain his grip on the party nationally.

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If you back the wrong horse, you lose the $250.

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Given how lackluster Sony’s exclusive line-up has been to date, Infamous needs to be both a great game and a hit in order to reassure early adopters they didn’t back the wrong horse, and have to wait a year or so for a truly great Sony-only title.

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They’re afraid to back the wrong horse, or to help some of these emerging groups who may end up having members of al Qaeda.â€

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Iranians do not want to back the wrong horse ...

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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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