shoo-in

shoo-in

Someone or something that is predicted to easily win a competition. Julia is a shoo-in for this year's spelling bee—she's the best speller in the whole town.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

shoo-in

(ˈʃuɪn)
n. an easy winner. My horse was a shoo-in. It won by a mile.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

shoo-in

A sure winner. This term comes from horse racing. The verb “to shoo” has long meant to drive or urge on. In the early 1900s corrupt jockeys would select a long shot to beat the faster horses, which would then be “shooed in” by the others. Turned into a noun, the expression now is used for a team, a political candidate, or other competitor, without any connotation of malfeasance.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • shoo
  • be a shoo-in
  • shoo away
  • shoo off
  • any fule kno
  • go head to head
  • (as) busy as a bee
  • as busy as a bee
  • be (as) busy as a bee
  • busy as a bee
References in periodicals archive
They are shoo-ins to bag a play-off spot and no one will want to take them on in a two-legged shoot-out.
Slovenia and Lithuania are virtually shoo-ins to get to the knockout stages while Mexico, Angola, Australia and South Korea will battle the last two spots.
It means Zaha and Co are even further down the pecking order when the reality is that they could easily have been shoo-ins had they not moved from their original sides.
CHARLTON -- Two lone candidates are shoo-ins for the two available Board of Selectmen seats, while voters will decide a four-way contest for the Board of Health during the annual town election May 3.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad are shoo-ins, meaning Onions is battling it out with both Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn for the final spot in the side.
Airbus looked shoo-ins to end the first half of the season in the upper half of the table.
A Smithsonian museum near Washington, D.C., and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were shoo-ins, leaving only two shuttles available to be placed elsewhere.
In Division A2, top two Lanchester and Chopwell are also level on points - and both look shoo-ins for promotion with third-placed Greenside 41 points behind.
Bell and Anderson appear shoo-ins for two of this year's central contracts, to be announced today alongside the one-day unit for Sri Lanka.
I thought there were five shoo-ins - Stefan Klos, Arthur Numan, Jackie McNamara, Chris Sutton and Henrik Larsson - and they all made it.
Far, far worse are primary elections, those largely overlooked "first-round" contests where the vast majority of candidates who win the dominant party's nomination are virtual shoo-ins for November.
Bury are therefore shoo-ins to feast on three easy points at the Abbey Stadium.
Because of their charismatic personality and manipulative manner, sociopaths are shoo-ins for almost any job they interview for.
Horn-Miller, who was a co-captain for the Canadian entry at the Pan American Games and provides plenty of offensive punch from her driver (outside shooter) position, should be among those considered shoo-ins for the Olympic club.
Judging whose writing should be included is without question a precarious high-wire act, though critically acclaimed writers like Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Paula Gunn Allen were shoo-ins. There is also that sticky problem of Indian identity.