white hope
3
7.7
- noun
- Archaic
:
gran esperanza blanca
- Many fans believe that newcomer Jake is the team's last white hope to win the championship.
- the great white hope
Examples
-
Throughout the season, supporters rallied around their white hope, confident that he would lead them to victory.
-
Look, simply put, you're the great white hope.
-
That kid's the great white hope.
Fiction book (2001) -
I'm the great white hope.
Blog text (18) -
You're the great white hope.
-
Employers are looking for the great white hopes, yet they lie and say that they cannot find any minorities to interview and hire.
Blog text (33) -
The tall, telegenic Lindsay was viewed as the "great white hope" of American urban liberalism.
Academic text (2005) -
THAT QUARTERBACK'S THE GREAT WHITE HOPE.
-
The talented singer was seen as the white hope of the music industry, expected to revitalize its popularity.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Someone or something that makes you expect something good
14
6.8
A person likely to become successful or famous
How Promising
77
2.4
- US
165
1.9
- Archaic
3
7.7
46
1.0
73
3.7
- Informal
14
4.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person or thing expected to bring success' is not transparently derivable from combining 'white' (colour/race) with 'hope' (expectation); the phrase is historically and culturally specific and functions as an idiomatic label rather than a compositional description. A B1 learner who knows the individual words would likely interpret it literally (a pale or racially white hope) and would need background knowledge to reach the intended meaning.
Etymology
White hope comes from old boxing stories, when fans looked for a white fighter to beat a black champion and called him a white hope. Here white meant the fighter's race and hope meant the chance to win, so today the phrase is used for 'someone expected to bring success'.