hiding to nothing

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

hiding to nothing (uncountable)

(idiomatic, Britain, informal) A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost.
- 1915, James Forman Sloan and A. Dick Luckman, Tod Sloan‎, pages 245:
  It would have been madness to encourage them to back the mare : in fact I was on a hiding to nothing whatever happened.
- 1931, The Atlantic Monthly‎, Making of America Project, page 60:
  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 […]
- 1989, Dave Graves, A layman's guide to United Kingdom air traffic control‎, page 76:
  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]
- 2003, Robin Birn, The international handbook of market research techniques‎, page 543:
  This often makes it a nervous, hiding-to-nothing game in which disasters are so much more memorable than successes
- 2003, Frank L. Clarke; G. W. Dean, Kyle Gaius Oliver, Corporate collapse: accounting, regulatory and ethical failure‎, page 39:
  Company directors are on a hiding to nothing when it comes to trusting their reputations to the accounting statements for which they are responsible.

Usage notes

Can be used to describe any contested outcome.

References

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-a-hiding-to-nothing.html