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What does “pipped at the post” mean in British English?

If you are “pipped at the post,” someone beats you by a very small amount, right at the last moment. The phrase comes from British horse racing: the post is the finishing line, and “to pip” someone means to beat them just barely. British speakers use it in sport, business, politics, and everyday life — any time someone almost wins but loses to a rival who got there just a little bit first.

In the clip, astronaut Tim Peake explains why the Soviet Union moved fast to send a woman into space. The Soviets heard that America was looking at female astronaut candidates, so they decided: “we’re not gonna get pipped at the post.” They chose their own candidate and flew Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 — more than twenty years before the first American woman reached space. You will hear this phrase often in British news and conversation. A job applicant might say, “I was pipped at the post by someone with more experience.” A football team that loses the league title on the last day was “pipped at the post.” It always means the same thing: you almost won, but someone got there just before you. This is a British and Irish informal phrase. In American English, people tend to say “edged out” or “beaten at the last second” for the same idea.