Word.ws English Dictionary

nice guys finish last

nice guys finish last proverb: people who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed by others who are not so decent, friendly, or agreeable.

Proverb

nice guys finish last

  1. (idiomatic) People who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed by others who are not so decent, friendly, or agreeable.
    • The size of his victory . . . contradicted the maxim of latter-day fellow Californian Leo Durocher, who once said positively: "Nice guys finish last."1956 November 19, “National Affairs: Nice Guy Finishes First”, in Time
    • "He can be as moderate as he likes. Nobody else will be. In Washington these days, nice guys finish last."1998 March 23, Seth Schiesel, “All Too Soon, New F.C.C. Chief Finds Warm Welcome Is Cooling”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 Jul 2012

Origin of nice guys finish last

First appears in the US c. 1946, and condensed from a comment by the baseball manager Leo Durocher. The original quote was The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place. (1946 July 6), about the 1946 New York Giants — seventh place was next-to-last place in the National League. This was shortly afterwards rendered as ‘Nice Guys’ Wind Up in Last Place, Scoffs Lippy, hence giving the present form.

Questions about nice guys finish last

What does nice guys finish last mean?
Nice guys finish last means people who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed by others who are not so decent, friendly, or agreeable.
What part of speech is nice guys finish last?
Nice guys finish last is a proverb.

Words near nice guys finish last in the dictionary

  1. nice creams
  2. nice going
  3. nice guy
  4. nice guy syndrome
  5. nice guys
  6. nice guys finish last
  7. nice knowing you
  8. nice list
  9. Nice model
  10. nice Nellie
  11. nice nellies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nice guys finish last (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-nice guys finish last.ogg.

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