unwinnable
Britishadjective
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not able to be won or achieved
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(of a seat in an election) not able to be taken from the incumbent or the incumbent's party
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.
Rather than exhausting ourselves in an unwinnable race, we must move to a model where the act of engagement imposes a heavy toll on the attacker, while the defender stands still.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Repeating history, rocking the Ravine, winning the unwinnable, Freddie Freeman has done it again for the Dodgers, knocking a baseball for a second consecutive October into probably a second consecutive championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
People thought that case was unwinnable, and we won, and we won in a big way.
From Slate ● Oct. 18, 2025
“It was unwinnable from the beginning,” said Martin Stefen, a 78-year-old Republican who lives in Carson City, Nevada.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 17, 2023
It has one of the highest Indigenous populations in Australia, but from the start of the campaign it's been labelled as an unwinnable state.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2023
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.
