dead ringer
nounEtymology See ringer (“substitute”) and ring the changes
1
Idiomatic Someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another.
- He is a dead ringer for his grandfather at that age.
- Hey, er, anybody ever tell you you're a dead ringer for…1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert):
3 more examples
- In 1987, in “The Rules of Attraction,” he wrote about casual sex and obsessive drug use among bored students of a dead ringer for Bennington College, which Mr. Ellis attended.2005 August 7, Edward Wyatt, “Bret Easton Ellis: The Man in the Mirror”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- On our next date, she told me I could come back home if I wanted to. There was one condition, though: couples counseling.2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.1, at p.19
- Twentysomething Alice works in publishing, so is instantly in awe of this old man offering her chocolate with a trembling hand. He is world-famous writer Ezra Blazer, a dead ringer for Philip Roth, with whom Halliday had a relationship in her 20s.2018 February 28, Justine Jordan, “Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday review – a dizzying debut”, in The Guardian: