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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April 25, 2024firkin

[fur-kin ]

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

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