bet on the wrong horse
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The company has bet on the wrong horse before, like hair extensions and supplements.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2025
The outcomes can be painful for companies or consumers who bet on the wrong horse.
From New York Times • Jun. 27, 2023
Chinese entrepreneurs might also come to feel that they've bet on the wrong horse.
From BBC • Jun. 16, 2016
The poor devils in the city bet on the wrong horse.
From Badge of Infamy by Del Rey, Lester
It may go north of the lake; if it does we only bet on the wrong horse.
From The Homesteaders A Novel of the Canadian West by Stead, Robert J. C.
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.
