Dictionary

dead ringer en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

See ringer (“substitute”) and ring the changes

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) Someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another.
   • He is a dead ringer for his grandfather at that age.
   • 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. 2018 February 28, Justine Jordan, “Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday review – a dizzying debut”, in The Guardian:
   • On our next date, she told me I could come back home if I wanted to. There was one condition, though: couples counseling. 2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.1, at p.19
   • 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. 2005 August 7, Edward Wyatt, “Bret Easton Ellis: The Man in the Mirror”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Hey, er, anybody ever tell you you're a dead ringer for… 1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert):

Forms

Synonyms

spitting image · doppelganger · lookalike · double

Translations (13)

ru двойни́к (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · nl evenbeeld (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · ja そっくり様 (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · ru точная ко́пия (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · pt sósia (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · fr portrait craché (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · fi kaksoisolento (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · pt cara de um, focinho do outro (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · es sosias (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · it sosia (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · ro sosie (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · pt cuspido e escarrado (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another) · it copia sputata (someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another)