nip and tuck


Closely contested; neck and neck: “It was nip and tuck there for a while, but our team finally pulled through.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use nip and tuck in a sentence

  • Texas fought in the wild and savage style of the prairie, nip-and-tuck, go-as-you-please; and he was wild with anger.

    A Cadet's Honor | Upton Sinclair
  • For the first six innings, it was a nip-and-tuck battle between the two pitchers.

    The Rover Boys in Business | Arthur M. Winfield

Other Idioms and Phrases with nip and tuck

nip and tuck

Very close so that the advantage or lead of competitors keeps shifting, as in It was nip and tuck whether they would deal with the bill before Congress adjourned. The precise allusion in this term has been lost. [Early 1800s] Also see neck and neck.

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