showdown
the final confrontation
TRANSLATION
showdown= die Machtprobe, die Kraftprobe (woerterbuch.info) --- GOOGLE INDEX showdown: approximately 3,400,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
A SHOWDOWN between the German chancellor and President Bush over climate change looms for the upcoming international forum.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
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The top two tennis players in the world set up a repeat of last year's SHOWDOWN, when Roger Federer won his fourth Hamburg title and ended Rafael Nadal's' 81-match winning streak…
(International Herald Tribune)
(BusinessWeek magazine)
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The top two tennis players in the world set up a repeat of last year's SHOWDOWN, when Roger Federer won his fourth Hamburg title and ended Rafael Nadal's' 81-match winning streak…
(International Herald Tribune)
Did you
know?
showdown
noun
- a final test or confrontation intended to settle a dispute
- (in poker or brag) the requirement at the end of a round that the players show their cards to determine which is the strongest hand
(Compact Oxford English Dictionary)
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WORD ORIGIN
Showdown has its origins in poker and refers to "showing" one's cards by laying them "down" on the table to determine the winner of the hand. It's used in a figurative sense in just about any context to describe a situation in which two opponents have a confrontation in order to settle a dispute.
Poker has a number of colourful expressions that have been adopted as general idioms:
poker face - a face with no expression. This is done in poker so that your opponents can't tell if the cards in your hand are good or not. (He had a poker face when he was questioned by the police.)
raise the ante/up the ante - to increase what is at stake or under discussion in a dispute or conflict. The ante is money that you lay in the middle of the poker table before starting a game. The sum of the ante from each player is called the "pot." (The unions upped the ante in their dispute with the company by going on strike.)
hold all the cards - to be in a strong or advantageous position, such as having the winning hand in a card game (Jim is holding all the cards in the race for the sales director job.)
play one's cards close to the chest - to be extremely secretive or cautious about something. This refers to holding one's cards close to the chest so to keep the other players from seeing them. (He's a good negotiator because he always plays his cards close to his chest.)
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SYNONYMS
final battle, final round, face-off, confrontation, encounter
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"Try to avoid confrontation - a showdown means a winner and a loser."
noun
- a final test or confrontation intended to settle a dispute
- (in poker or brag) the requirement at the end of a round that the players show their cards to determine which is the strongest hand
(Compact Oxford English Dictionary)
---
WORD ORIGIN
Showdown has its origins in poker and refers to "showing" one's cards by laying them "down" on the table to determine the winner of the hand. It's used in a figurative sense in just about any context to describe a situation in which two opponents have a confrontation in order to settle a dispute.
Poker has a number of colourful expressions that have been adopted as general idioms:
poker face - a face with no expression. This is done in poker so that your opponents can't tell if the cards in your hand are good or not. (He had a poker face when he was questioned by the police.)
raise the ante/up the ante - to increase what is at stake or under discussion in a dispute or conflict. The ante is money that you lay in the middle of the poker table before starting a game. The sum of the ante from each player is called the "pot." (The unions upped the ante in their dispute with the company by going on strike.)
hold all the cards - to be in a strong or advantageous position, such as having the winning hand in a card game (Jim is holding all the cards in the race for the sales director job.)
play one's cards close to the chest - to be extremely secretive or cautious about something. This refers to holding one's cards close to the chest so to keep the other players from seeing them. (He's a good negotiator because he always plays his cards close to his chest.)
---
SYNONYMS
final battle, final round, face-off, confrontation, encounter
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"Try to avoid confrontation - a showdown means a winner and a loser."
