back the wrong horse
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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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The rainy weather could not ________ my elated spirits on my graduation day.
Words nearby back the wrong horse
backswimmer, backswing, backsword, backswordman, back talk, back the wrong horse, back to back, back-to-basics, back to the drawing board, back to the salt mines, back to the wall
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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