Meaning
To be completely certain that something will happen or is true; to stake everything on an outcome because you have no doubt about it. The image is of wagering the very last dollar left in your pocket, so total is your confidence. Informal and emphatic; common in speech, journalism, and advertising. It asserts certainty rather than describing any literal wager. Regional use: American English.
Origin
An American gambling-flavoured asseveration. The bottom dollar is the last dollar remaining when you empty your pocket, so wagering it signals absolute confidence. The Phrase Finder's earliest known print evidence is from the La Crosse Independent Republican of Wisconsin, September 1856, quoting a voter's pledge of support to a candidate. The OED, working from slightly later evidence, dates 'bet one's bottom dollar' to 1866 and groups it with hyperbolic American slang bet phrases such as 'bet your life' (1852) and 'bet your old boots' (1856), all meaning to stake all one's resources on the truth of an assertion. The phrase stayed famous enough that in 1977 it anchored the best-known lyric of the song Tomorrow in the musical Annie.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bet one's bottom dollar
- bet your last dollar
- you can bet your bottom dollar
Usage Examples
- You can bet your bottom dollar the bakery will sell out of those cronuts before nine on a Saturday.
- She bet her bottom dollar that the storm would clear before the wedding photos, and the sky did just in time.
- I would bet my bottom dollar he forgets the anniversary again; he has managed it every year since 2019.