But the pandemic had other plans and lockdown won the coveted first place by a nose as lexicographers announced lockdown as the word of the year. When Collins Dictionary released its words of the year that rise to use in the twelve months leading up to the list being published, most people thought Megxit was a shoe-in for first place in 2020 after Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, left the UK for Canada and subsequently America.
GREENE DICTIONARY OF SLANG PROFESSIONAL
The idiom is still in use today, as evidenced by the research paper published in Frontiers in Psychology on May 2019 titled, “ Pipped at the Post: Knowledge Gaps and Expected Low Parental IT Competience Ratings Affect Young Women’s Awakening Interest in Professional Careers in Information Science” by Angela Schorr of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Siegen (Germany). From Idiomation’s point of view, losing at the last minute what was believed to be a guaranteed win would certain annoy and irritate the loser, so while the reason for the expression makes sense, when did it come about as an idiom? But from 1896 onward, the pip meant to annoy or irritate someone. The Oxford English Dictionary and Green’s Dictionary of Slang both refer to the pip as being depressed or out of sorts, and dates back to the 1830s. Those are all pips, but they aren’t the pip in the idiom. It hasn’t any connection to the insignia on the shoulder of an officer’s uniform indicating rank. It has nothing to do with the diamond-shaped segments on a pineapple.
The pip in question has nothing whatsoever to do with the dots on a dice or domino.
While it’s generally used when talking about a race or competition, but overall it has to do with not succeeding where success was almost guaranteed, or by the underdog gaining a small advantage at the last decisive moment resulting in the crowd favorite losing. To be pipped at or on or to the post means to be defeated by someone by a very narrow margin or at a crucial moment.