Runner-up

Runner-up

Runner-up is a term used to denote a participant which finishes in second place in any of a variety of competitive endeavors, most notably sporting events and beauty pageants; in the latter instance, the term is applied to more than one of the highest-ranked non-winning contestants, the second-place finisher being designated "first runner-up," the third-place finisher "second runner-up," and so on.

While loosely acceptable for describing any second-place finisher in a sporting event, the "runner-up" label is more properly appended to one that finishes in that position as the result of having lost in the final round of an elimination tournament; specifically, its most frequent use is encountered in tennis, and refers to the player (or doubles team) that loses the final match; in most tennis tournaments, a testimonial award, often in the form of a plate, is given to the runner(s)-up following the final match, with the winner(s) receiving a trophy instead.

In American team sports, the term is usually avoided in official circles, because the team losing in the final round of the postseason playoffs will have had to have won the championship of a lesser entity as a condition for reaching the finals; in basketball, American football and Ice hockey this would have been a conference championship, and in baseball a league championship, or colloquially, the league "pennant." Consequently, the losing finalist will typically be referred to as the champion of its conference (or league in the case of baseball) rather than as a runner-up.

In the Olympic Games, runners-up receive silver medals, and in competitions held at county and state fairs in the United States, a red ribbon traditionally identifies the runner-up (with a blue ribbon signifying the winner, and white, yellow, green, orange, purple and brown being the colors associated with third through eighth places, in that order).

In politics, runners-up only applies to single member electorates or parties using a first past-the-post voting systems, such as Great Britain, the United States of America, Canada or Australia's House of Representatives. It does not apply to multi-member proportional representation electorates such as exists in Ireland, Ukraine and many European countries or Australia's Senate elections.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Runner — may refer to:* Someone or something who runs * Baserunner, an offensive player in baseball who has successfully reached base * Gilera Runner, a moped/scooter manufactured by Gilera * Runner (band) * Runner (cricket), a player who runs for an… …   Wikipedia

  • runner-up — 1842, originally in dog racing; see RUNNER (Cf. runner) + UP (Cf. up). General sense is from 1885 …   Etymology dictionary

  • runner — ► NOUN 1) a person or animal that runs. 2) a messenger, collector, or agent for a bank, bookmaker, etc. 3) an orderly in the army. 4) a rod, groove, blade, or roller on which something slides. 5) a ring capable of sliding or being drawn along a… …   English terms dictionary

  • runner — [run′ər] n. [ME renner] 1. a person, animal, or thing that runs; specif., a) a racer ☆ b) Baseball BASE RUNNER ☆ c) Football a player running with the ball 2. a person who runs errands, carries messages, etc., as for a bank or brokerage house …   English World dictionary

  • Runner — Run ner, n. [From {Run}.] 1. One who, or that which, runs; a racer. [1913 Webster] 2. A detective. [Slang, Eng.] Dickens. [1913 Webster] 3. A messenger. Swift. [1913 Webster] 4. A smuggler. [Colloq.] R. North. [1913 Webster] 5. One employed to… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Runner — Runner. См. питатель. (Источник: «Металлы и сплавы. Справочник.» Под редакцией Ю.П. Солнцева; НПО Профессионал , НПО Мир и семья ; Санкт Петербург, 2003 г.) …   Словарь металлургических терминов

  • Runner — (engl., spr. Ronner, d.i. der Renner), 1) der Postbote; 2) der Polizei od. Gerichtsdiener …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Runner — (englisch amerikan., spr. rönner, »Läufer«), Leute, die gewerbs und gewohnheitsmäßig die einkommenden Seeleute zur Desertion (s. d.) veranlassen. Gegen die Folgen dieses Treibens sucht die Seemannsordnung dadurch zu schützen, daß nach § 90 der… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • runner — index bootlegger, candidate Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • runner-up — n plural runners up the person or team that comes second in a race or competition …   Dictionary of contemporary English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”