Word.ws English Dictionary

on a losing wicket

on a losing wicket prepositional phrase: in a no-win situation.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) in a no-win situation.
    • Recognize that we are on a losing wicket in Vietnam.1995, William Conrad Gibbons, The US government and the Vietnam war, V.4, page 292
    • I'm sure we're on a losing wicket but we're fighting technology.2007 September 3, Helen Pidd, “Pitt happy, but Ridley Scott grumbles”, in The Guardian

Questions about on a losing wicket

What does on a losing wicket mean?
On a losing wicket means in a no-win situation.
What part of speech is on a losing wicket?
On a losing wicket is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on a losing wicket in the dictionary

  1. on a go-slow
  2. on a good wicket
  3. on a kick
  4. on a lark
  5. on a loose end
  6. on a losing wicket
  7. on a mission
  8. on a need-to-know basis
  9. on a pair
  10. on a par
  11. on a pinch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on a losing wicket (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-on a losing wicket.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on a losing wicket.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_a_losing_wicket. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.