Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Dead ringer (idiom)

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Dead ringer is an idiom in English. It means "an exact duplicate" and derives from 19th-century horse-racing slang for a horse presented "under a false name and pedigree"; "ringer" was a late nineteenth-century term for a duplicate, usually with implications of dishonesty, and "dead" in this case means "precise", as in "dead centre".

The term is sometimes implausibly said to derive, like "saved by the bell", from a custom of providing a cord in coffins for someone who has been buried alive to ring a bell to call for help.

  • Dead Ringer, also known as Who Is Buried in My Grave? is a 1964 thriller film made by Warner Bros with Bette Davis
  • "Dead Ringer" is a song on No More Heroes, an album by The Stranglers.
  • ″Dead Ringer for Love″ is a song performed by Meat Loaf and Cher from Meat Loaf's third studio album, Dead Ringer.
  • The expression is mentioned in "Lady Writer", a song by the Dire Straits.
  • The Dead Ringer is the name of a cloaking device for the Spy in the video game Team Fortress 2, which allows him to feign death.
  • Dead Ringer is the title of a 2016 short film by Alex Kliment, Mike Tucker, and Dana O’Keefe in which one of the last New York City pay telephones speaks.
  • Dead Ringers is a 1988 film directed by David Cronenberg, which follows the story of twin gynecologists, both played by Jeremy Irons, who begin switching identities and lovers.
  • "Deadringer" is an instrumental hip-hop album by DJ RJD2.

    • References

    Dead ringer (idiom) Wikipedia
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