dollars to donuts | Q&A about words

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#2386 - 05/15/00 02:21 PM dollars to donuts
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10538 Loc: this too shall pass	pieman; here it is, credit to Martha Barnette and http://funwords.com dollars to doughnuts Most assuredly; with certainty. You usually hear this idiom used in the phrase as "I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that . . ." But why doughnuts? The idea behind this phrase is the bettor is so certain of being correct that he or she is willing to risk something valuable (i.e., dollars) against something virtually worthless. In the past, the same idea has been expressed in the phrases dollars to cobwebs and dollars to buttons. But, perhaps because of its deliciously alliterative quality, dollars to doughuts" eventually won out. "Oh, I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts those aren't real!" http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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#2387 - 05/15/00 06:58 PM Re: dollars to donuts
pieman stranger Registered: 04/27/00 Posts: 20	tsuwm, Dollars to donuts. It's a great expression. Thanks for the info. pieman
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#2388 - 05/15/00 07:10 PM Re: dollars to donuts
lusy member Registered: 03/16/00 Posts: 140 Loc: Melbourne, Australia	Yes, it's a good expression, but I still prefer "pounds to peanuts", which continues to be used in this land of Oz, despite our currency having been decimalised and dollarised many, many years ago.
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