hiding to nothing

English

Etymology

From horse racing, hiding (“beating”); to (“as used to express gambling odds”), e.g., 6 to 1. Literally, the phrase can be described as to bet on a contest whose outcome is at worst a beating, or at best nothing. A heavily favored team in a sporting contest earns no credit for victory, but is shamed by defeat; this team is said to be on a hiding to nothing.

Pronunciation

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Noun

hiding to nothing (plural hidings to nothing)

1. (idiomatic, British, informal) A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost.
   • 1915, James Forman Sloan, A. Dick Luckman, Tod Sloan, page 245:

     It would have been madness to encourage them to back the mare : in fact I was on a hiding to nothing whatever happened.

   • 1931, The Atlantic Monthly, Making of America Project, page 60:

     No legitimate excuse for introduction existed, or could exist, and the odds looked like a hiding to nothing should Bayard attempt to force a meeting […]

   • 1989, Dave Graves, A layman's guide to United Kingdom air traffic control, page 76:

     It is a nasty situation and DFR knows that he is on a good hiding to nothing. He sometimes feels that he is the least understood and most unloved ATCO in [the UK]

   • 2003, Robin Birn, The international handbook of market research techniques, page 543:

     This often makes it a nervous, hiding-to-nothing game in which disasters are so much more memorable than successes

   • 2003, Frank L. Clarke with G. W. Dean and Kyle Gaius Oliver, Corporate collapse: accounting, regulatory and ethical failure, page 39:

     Company directors are on a hiding to nothing when it comes to trusting their reputations to the accounting statements for which they are responsible.

Usage notes

• Can be used to describe any contested outcome.

References

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-a-hiding-to-nothing.html