cert
/səːt
/noun British informal
1An event regarded as inevitable: of course Mum would cry, it was a dead cert...
- Brian Sullivan, Sky's director of consumer products and services, said: ‘We believe it is pretty much a dead cert that it will take off.’
- Morrissey and the Duranies are back in the charts; the 20th anniversary edition of Purple Rain was released last week; and Band Aid are already being tipped as a dead cert for the Christmas number one spot.
- A mile is 80 lengths, and if it wasn't closing I could probably have gone to 100 although it's a dead cert I'd regret it tomorrow.
1.1A racehorse strongly tipped to win a race.His thumbs up, as far as the book trade was concerned, was like a nudge in the local about a dead cert in the 2.30 at Newmarket....
- Big danger of her winning, but I'm still tipping Hungary, and for Malta to be a dead cert for top 4.
- Obviously they're all dead certs, and if (sorry, I mean when) all six come in this afternoon, you'll win about a hundred thousand.
1.2A person regarded as certain to do something: the Scottish keeper was a cert to play...
- Nevertheless, Mourinho still looks a dead cert for the top boss award since the panellists appear to have neither the imagination nor the inclination to look beyond the manager of the Premiership Champions.
- The little chap is also a dead cert for This Morning with Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield because, according to The Sun, his people discovered a rather radical diet regime.
- But then again, Coca-Cola UK chief Penny Hughes was heavily tipped in some of the papers as a dead cert for the chairmanship of Channel Four.
Origin
Late 19th century: abbreviation of certainty.