photo-ˈfinish
Also photo finish.
[f. photo- 2 + finish n.]
The finish of a race in which competitors are so close that the result has to be determined by reference to a photograph of the situation. Also attrib. and fig.
| 1936 N.Y. Times 1 July 36/6 New..tests will be made tomorrow at Pimlico on the photo finish device. Ibid. 2 July 16/8 At Belmont Park thirty pictures were called for. Of this number the photo finish awarded the decision to sixteen horses racing on the outside, with fourteen on the inside. 1938 D. Runyon Take it Easy xv. 283, I will take a chance on Nicely-Nicely against anything on four legs, except maybe an elephant, and at that he may give the elephant a photo finish. 1940 Sun (Baltimore) 22 Nov. 1/2 Gov. Payne H. Ratner..emerged a photo⁓finish leader tonight in the complete unofficial count of ballots cast sixteen days ago. 1944 J. H. Fullarton Troop Target 160 ‘We've got to choose between security and progress.’ ‘Personally,’ said MacVaughan, ‘I'm for security—but it's a photo finish.’ 1951 Sport 7– 13 Jan. 4/2 Combination ‘B’ looks like proving a photo-finish between Plymouth and Chelsea, with Charlton holding an outside chance. 1961 Times 22 July 3/2 Jones..snatched second place through a photo-finish from Radford. 1973 D. Francis Slay-Ride iv. 55 Sixteen hundred metres for staying two-year-olds... There was a photo⁓finish. 1974 Times 6 May 1/3 A photo finish was predicted by the last two public opinion polls. The final one showed M Mitterrand..winning on the second ballot by a short head. 1976 Guardian Weekly 19 Sept. 7/2 The Zia coup was a photofinish affair just four days after another army putsch that is popularly supposed to have been backed by India. 1976 Norwich Mercury 19 Nov. 10/1 A number of very close contests took place in Division Two, but Thetford British Legion B and Saints E were involved in a ‘photo-finish’ which the Legion won by a whisker. |