dark horse
nounDefinition of dark horse
1a
: a usually little known contender (such as a racehorse) that makes an unexpectedly good showing
b
: an entrant in a contest that is judged unlikely to succeed
2
: a political candidate unexpectedly nominated usually as a compromise between factions
Examples of dark horse in a Sentence
The Democrat from Utah has gone from being a dark horse to the front-runner in the campaign for President.
The movie is a dark horse for the award.
He is a dark horse, but I did find out that he once played football professionally.
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Recent Examples on the Web
Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, which played host to German rocket scientists after the second world war and now houses NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, is the dark horse. — The Economist, "Donald Trump creates Space Command but must wait for Space Force," 30 Aug. 2019 Cam Newton is a great dark horse, sitting just nine touchdowns back. — Mitch Goldich, SI.com, "NFL Leaders in Every Major Stat for the 2010s Decade, and Players Who Could Pass Them," 29 Aug. 2019 Texas Tech and West Virginia are two dark horse Final Four teams that could put together a strong run in Kansas City, while TCU is a nice underdog to bet on. — Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY, "Five bold projections for March Madness: Will Michigan go all the way?," 4 Mar. 2018 At the tail end of the 10 picks, the Wings made is an undersized Finn who’s a bit of a dark horse candidate. — Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press, "Detroit Red Wings 2018 draft review: Potential future stars among picks," 16 June 2019 With the offense other ready to roll – don’t forget about Jarrett Stidham as an early Heisman Trophy dark horse – the line needs to round into form before August. — Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY, "Alabama's QB battle, Georgia's re-loaded offense highlight SEC spring football storylines," 14 Mar. 2018 Steele also has Utah as a dark horse to win the national title. — Jeremy Cluff, azcentral, "ASU football on list of dark horse bets to win College Football Playoff in 2019 season," 24 July 2019 The San Francisco Giants, a team that spent more than two full months of the season in last place, have emerged as a dark horse playoff contender. — Kerry Crowley, The Mercury News, "How the Giants morphed into the team no one wants to play right now," 19 July 2019 Benjamin Walker could also be an appealing dark horse contender, however, for his emotional turn in All My Sons. — Jessica Derschowitz, EW.com, "Here are our predictions for who will win at the Tony Awards," 4 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dark horse.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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