Dictionary

bet a dollar to a doughnut en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Possibly adapted from "bet dollars to buttons" and "bet dollars to dumplings" that appeared in the 1880s, meaning "to feel almost certain" because the dollars are bet against something nearly worthless and perhaps shaped like a zero.

Meanings

1. (figuratively, humorous, mildly) To declare with confidence.
   • I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut Usain Bolt is not the fastest human on the planet. 2010 September 13, Red Shannon, “The Greatest Athlete Who Never Was”, in Bleacher Report, retrieved 25 Apr 2015:
   • ‘Even if Kong follows, he has to travel overland, and it’s dollars to doughnuts we beat him.’ 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 119:
   • I bet a dollar to a doughnut that fellow Lopez sold us out. 1911, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 19, in Captain Scraggs:
   • [S]aying that environmental concerns are a major factor . . . Mr. Mulroney said "you can bet a dollar to a doughnut" that acid rain would feature in the campaign. 1988 April 25, John F. Burns, “Canada Losing Patience With U.S. on Acid Rain”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 Apr 2015:
   • There's places where a dago-dazzler doesn't cut much ice, but it was dollars to doughnuts that the Sultan'd have a kindly feeling for it when I had Mungo explain that it was from the President of the U. S. A., telling him to treat his Uncle Phineas good and white, and he'd do the same by him some day. 1917, Walter Alleyne Ireland, Beating 'em to it: Or, The Sultan and the Sausages:

Forms

Relateds

wanna bet · make it interesting

Synonyms

bet one's boots · a pound to a penny · Lombard Street to a China orange · bet a dollar to a dime · take to the bank · bet one's bottom dollar · bet the farm

wikipedia: Stuart Berg Flexner