back the wrong horse
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Verb
back the wrong horse (third-person singular simple present backs the wrong horse, present participle backing the wrong horse, simple past and past participle backed the wrong horse)
- To support something or someone that later turns out to be unsuccessful.
- Synonyms: pick the wrong horse, choose the wrong horse
- Antonym: back the right horse
- 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 32:
- This might mean that I waste vast amounts of time searching for a species only to find that it no longer counted when the new regime is in place. All that effort spent backing the wrong horse.
Translations
to support something or someone that later turns out to be unsuccessful
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Further reading
- “back the wrong horse”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- “back pick the right wrong horse” (US) / “back pick the right wrong horse” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
- “the wrong horse”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
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