ranch

To risk everything on a venture that one thinks will be successful. Primarily heard in US. I wouldn't bet the ranch on that wacky invention. He's broke now because he bet the ranch on a failed business venture.

A humorous phrase used as a segue to talk about what is happening where someone lives or works. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we're having so much landscaping work done that the whole area feels like a construction zone!

slang A retirement center or community. A slightly derogatory term equating the wrinkles of an older person with those of a raisin. My kids want to put me in a raisin ranch now that my wife died, but I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself! I would just feel so guilty dropping my mother off in some raisin ranch where we'll only spend time with her a few times a year.

If you bet the ranch, you take a big risk in doing something, sometimes spending all your money to do it. I wasn't going to bet the ranch on the stocks. It was a brave policy pushed through despite warnings that it would be a disaster. He bet the ranch and he won.

People say meanwhile, back at the ranch when they want to talk about something that is happening in another place, especially their home or place of work. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Condon was trying to write an article. Note: This expression comes from Western movies, in which the action regularly moves from a ranch (= large farm with animals) to some other place.

As we were saying before. This formula for a verbal flashback comes from the silent Western movies popular in the 1920s, and also the radio program The Lone Ranger. During the course of a battle between settlers and Indians or cowboys and outlaws, there would be a flashback to the ranch preceded by the caption (or radio message), “Meanwhile, back at the ranch.” It soon was transferred to general conversation. During Lyndon Johnson’s presidency (1963–69), according to William Safire, the phrase was used to refer to activities at the LBJ Ranch in Texas.