Dictionary

in the bag en · ADP

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, slang) Of a desirable thing, certain or extremely likely to occur.
   • Near-synonyms: assured, cinched, guaranteed, on ice, inevitable
   • 3-0 up with 5 minutes to go...we've got the win in the bag.
   • At the turn of this century it was still widely believed that electromagnetic phenomena (such as electric charge and magnetic attraction) were just an unusually subtle manifestation of purely mechanical phenomena. Some scientists thought that a reduction of electromagnetics to mechanics was more or less in the bag. 1986, Paul M. Churchland, Matter and Consciousness, Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, →ISBN, pages 12-13:
   • "We mustn't count our eggs before they're hatched, but I think it's in the bag," he said. 1954, Charles Percy Snow, The New Men, published 2001, →ISBN, page 61:
2. (idiomatic, slang) Intoxicated; drunk.
   • "It's like the way it is for an alcoholic when he can't get a drink.... He bumps into more things now than he did when he was in the bag." 2004, Les Visible, The Dark Splendour, →ISBN, page 97:
   • His wife and his three girls had gone over to Gates Falls to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, and Uncle George was pretty much in the bag, just like the Drunk Man Who Had to Go to Jail. 1984, Stephen King, Gramma:

Relateds

rigged · sure thing · in the tank · the fix is in

Synonyms

cinched · guaranteed · on ice · assured · inevitable

Translations (10)

fr dans la poche (certain or extremely likely to occur) · he בכיס (certain or extremely likely to occur) · es a cosa hecha (certain or extremely likely to occur) · bg в къ́рпа въ́рзано (certain or extremely likely to occur) · fr dans le sac (certain or extremely likely to occur) · tr cepte (certain or extremely likely to occur) · it in tasca (certain or extremely likely to occur) · pl na bank (certain or extremely likely to occur) · tr çantada keklik (certain or extremely likely to occur) · pl na bani (drunk)