dead heat, n. Racing, etc.
[Cf. dead a. 28, 31.]
A ‘heat’ or race in which two (or more) competitors reach the goal at the same instant.
| 1796 Sporting Mag. VII. 260/2 The whole race was run head and head, terminating in a dead heat. 1823 ‘J. Bee’ Dict. Turf 94 ‘Dead heat’, is when two winners come in nose to nose. 1840 Hood Kilmansegg, Her Accident viii, She could ride a dead heat With the Dead who ride so fast and fleet. 1878 Lever Jack Hinton viii. 54 What year there was a dead heat for the St. Leger. |
Hence dead-heat v. intr., to run a dead heat (with); trans. to run a dead heat with (another competitor). dead-heater, one who runs a dead heat.
| 1887 Cyclist 22 June, Ralph Temple..Dead-heated Howell in the Quarter-mile Match. 1892 Black & White 19 Mar. 384/1 The two clubs who dead-heated..express themselves as very anxious to decide the matter by a race. 1868 Daily Tel. 29 Apr., About four lengths in the rear of the dead-heaters was St. Ronan, third. 1902 Daily Chron. 21 May 3/5 Hitherto the London and North-Western have deliberately ‘dawdled’ over the thirty miles after Crewe, so as to only ‘dead-heat’ with their competitors. 1922 Daily Mail 22 Nov. 7 Chuck-a-Penny distinguished himself..by dead-heating with Eton and dividing the spoils. |