Definition
Someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another.
Origins
See ringer (“substitute”) and ring the changes
In Context
- "He is a dead ringer for his grandfather at that age."
- "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."
- "On our next date, she told me I could come back home if I wanted to. There was one condition, though: couples counseling."
- "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."
Also Said As
- spitting image
- double
- doppelganger
- lookalike