twelfth man
Britishnoun
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a reserve player in a cricket team
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anything that is regarded as a contributory factor to the success of a football team, esp a large and vocal home support
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Moreover, every single Aggie stands throughout every single football game�ignoring even passing tornadoes�to signify his eagerness to take to the field if necessary as the team's "twelfth man."
From Time Magazine Archive
I was twelfth man to the XI., though you needn't believe it if you don't want to.
From Godfrey Marten, Undergraduate by Turley, Charles
I am going to be the twelfth man.
From The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers by Labelle, Claude A.
"Well," said the courtier, "what will you give me and I will find the twelfth man?"
From Amusing Prose Chap Books by Various
There they reached a verdict so quickly that, as the saying is, the foreman was coming back into the court-room before the twelfth man was out of it.
From In a Little Town by Hughes, Rupert
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.
