dead ringer for (someone)

dead ringer for (someone)

A person or thing that bears a strong resemblance to someone or something else. Susie was such a dead ringer for Kate Winslet that sometimes people would ask her for her autograph.

See also: dead, ringer

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

a dead ringer for someone

INFORMAL

COMMON If you say that one person is a dead ringer for another, you mean that the first person looks or sounds exactly like the second. He's tall, dark and a dead-ringer for Robert Pattinson. Kovic is extraordinary in one respect: he's a dead ringer for the former US President. Note: The word `ringer' may originally have come from a name for dishonest traders at fairs who sold brass rings, pretending they were gold. In American horse racing, a `ringer' is a horse that has been dishonestly substituted for another in a race.

See also: dead, ringer, someone

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

a dead ˈringer for somebody

(informal) a person who looks extremely like somebody else: She’s a dead ringer for her mother.A ringer was a person or thing that pretended to be another person or thing. In horse racing for example, a ringer was a horse that was substituted for another in order to cheat in a race.

See also: dead, ringer, somebody

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

(dead) ringer (for someone)

n. someone who is an exact duplicate of someone else. (see also ringer.) You are sure a dead ringer for my brother.

See also: dead, ringer, someone

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.