An underdog is a person or group in a competition, frequently in electoral politics, sports and creative works, who is popularly expected to lose. The party, team or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the rare case where an underdog wins, the outcome is an upset. These terms are commonly used in sports betting. The use of the term is believed to have come from the blood-sport known as bear-baiting where the "top-dog" was trained to attack the bear's throat and head, and the "underdog" was trained to attack the bear's underside. The top-dog had a better chance of surviving and of beating the bear, whereas the underdog was more likely to die.
Famous quotes containing the word underdog:
“If the underdog were always right, one might quite easily try to defend him. The trouble is that very often he is but obscurely right, sometimes only partially right, and often quite wrong; but perhaps he is never so altogether wrong and pig-headed and utterly reprehensible as he is represented to be by those who add the possession of prejudices to the other almost insuperable difficulties of understanding him.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)