walk-over
[f. vbl. phrase walk over: see walk v.1 7 c.]
a. A race in which through absence of competitors the winner has merely to ‘walk over’; also in extended sense, a contest in which through the inferiority of his competitors the winner has practically no opposition.
| 1838 Times 29 June 8/3 [Election at Cashel] I think it not unlikely that Mr. Richard Moore may have a walk over. 1861 Sporting Rev. Oct. 249 Kettledrum's walk-over was quite a little tit-bit for the Yorkshiremen. 1889 Century Mag. July 403/1 That's the bay stallion there,..and he's never been beaten. It's his walk-over. |
b. transf. Anything accomplished with great ease.
| 1902 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Self-Made Merchant xv. 216 It wasn't any walk-over to hold the belt in those days. 1931 Daily Tel. 21 Jan. 8/4 This makes its acquisition by an American crook a walk-over. 1975 P. Fussell Gt. War & Mod. Memory (1977) i. 27 His little sporting contest did have the effect of persuading his men that the attack was going to be..a walkover. |
c. attrib. or as adj.
| 1936 Sunday Times 14 June 4/2 When the law gets them in its clutches, a shady lawyer is allowed to get a walkover verdict of ‘Not Guilty’. 1974 Times 5 Oct. 14/7 Lauda seemed set for almost a walkover trip to the title (he proved himself the fastest driver..nine times this year). |