the.com/dead ringer
A lookalike so exact, it's suspicious you only ordered one.
means Someone or something that looks so identical to another that they could be mistaken for one another.
from Most likely from 19th-century horse-racing slang, where a 'ringer' was a horse fraudulently substituted for another of similar appearance to cheat the betting odds — 'ringing in' a substitute. 'Dead' here means 'exact' or 'precise,' as in 'dead center' or 'dead heat,' intensifying the perfection of the match. The popular tale about Victorian coffins wired with bells for the 'not-quite-dead' is a vivid piece of folklore, but it isn't the real source of this phrase — that gruesome story belongs to 'saved by the bell,' not this one.
- origin theory
- possibly from horse racing, swapping a fast horse disguised as a slow one
- other theory
- corpses with bell-strings in coffins in case buried alive
- ringer alone
- meant impostor or substitute since the 1800s
- dead here means
- exact, not deceased — like dead center