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.
"That's only your politeness," he went on; "in a week you will be talking about me as 'that man Ward who says he was twelfth man at Wellingham.'"
From Godfrey Marten, Undergraduate by Charles Turley
Netherton was always the twelfth man to arrive, and nothing could be done till he was safely settled.
From Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush by Ian Maclaren
"Well," said the courtier, "what will you give me and I will find the twelfth man?"
From Amusing Prose Chap Books by Various
And every man did count eleven, and the twelfth man did never count himself.
From English Fairy Tales by Arthur Rackham
He goes at it on the principle of the twelfth man, who holds out against the eleven other jurors, and finally brings them around to his way of thinking.
From Second Book of Tales by Eugene Field
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.
