first loser
1
7.9
- noun
- Informal
:
primer perdedor
- Many athletes believe that second place means being the first loser in a competition.
- first loser in place
Examples
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And so that puts you in second place actually, first loser, first loser.
-
The second is the first loser, I think then you feel physically bad if you're not winning.
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In sports, people often jokingly refer to the runner-up as the first loser.
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The coach reminded the team that going home with silver meant they were the first loser.
Synonyms
47
2.7
A person or team that finishes second in an event
8
1.8
A person or team that finishes second in a competition
Antonyms
How Successful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is compositionally interpretable: 'first' modifies 'loser' to indicate the top-ranked person among those who lost, i.e. the runner-up. However, this is a humorous/informal coinage that requires an inferential step (first among losers → second place) rather than a fully conventionalized sense, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
First loser is a joking name for a person or team that finishes second in a contest. It plays on the words first and loser: they are the 'first' person to lose, so the phrase helps you remember that they are the 'runner-up'.