dead ringer

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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See ringer (substitute) and ring the changes

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dead ringer (plural dead ringers)

  1. (idiomatic) Someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another.
    Synonym: spitting image
    He is a dead ringer for his grandfather at that age.
    • 2005 August 7, Edward Wyatt, “Bret Easton Ellis: The Man in the Mirror”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN:
      In 1987, in “The Rules of Attraction,” he wrote about casual sex and obsessive drug use among bored students of a dead ringer for Bennington College, which Mr. Ellis attended.
    • 2018 February 28, Justine Jordan, “Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday review – a dizzying debut”, in The Guardian[2]:
      Twentysomething Alice works in publishing, so is instantly in awe of this old man offering her chocolate with a trembling hand. He is world-famous writer Ezra Blazer, a dead ringer for Philip Roth, with whom Halliday had a relationship in her 20s.

Usage notes

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Used with for to convey whom or what is being resembled.

Translations

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