a pound to a penny
- idiom
- UK
:
cien por uno
- You can bet a pound to a penny that it will rain tomorrow.
Examples
-
It’s a pound to a penny they’ll cancel the match if it rains.
-
A pound to a penny, she’ll be promoted before the end of the year.
-
A pound to a penny he’ll forget her birthday again this year.
-
I believe that, a pound to a penny, she will win the competition.
-
A pound to a penny, the team will win their next match.
-
You can count on it being a pound to a penny that he will arrive late.
-
A pound to a penny, she will forget to send the invitations again.
Synonyms
24
3.2
Very likely to happen or be true
8
3.8
Very likely to happen or be true
5
8.0
To be very sure that something will happen
1
3.7
Very likely to happen
1
9.9
You would bet on it because it is very likely to happen
Antonyms
How Certain
Surface Forms
Morphology
a + pound + to + a + penny
The phrase uses a numeric/odds contrast (a pound versus a penny) which gives a clue that one outcome is far more likely, so there is some compositional logic. However, the conventional use of 'X to Y' as expressing betting odds/probability and the idiomaticized meaning 'very likely' is not fully predictable from the words alone and relies on cultural/figurative knowledge, so it is only partially transparent to learners.
Etymology
The saying a pound to a penny comes from betting: imagine someone bets a whole pound while the other person puts only a penny, so the first person must be very sure the result will happen. So, the phrase means 'almost certain' or 'very likely'.