on a hiding to nothing = χαμένος από χέρι, χαμένος για χαμένος

[Theseus]

From the The Phrase Finder:-

On a hiding to nothing
To be faced with a situation which is pointless, as a successful outcome is impossible. This is usually expressed in terms of a sporting contest in which one of two outcomes is foreseen, either a hiding or nothing. The 'to' in the phrase indicates alternative outcomes, as in terms like '6 to 1' or 'dollars to doughnuts'.
The phrase has two applications. One scenario would be that of a team which is expected to win easily but has the betting odds so strongly in their favour that no kudos or reward, i.e. 'nothing' would be gained from victory. The other is that of a weak contestant who is expected to be beaten, i.e. get 'a hiding'.
Origin
The phrase is known from the early 20th century and originated as horse racing parlance. The earliest record of it that I can find is from Arthur Binstead's novel Mop Fair, 1905, or, to give it its glorious technicolor name, Mop Fair. Some Elegant Extracts from the Private Correspondence of Lady Viola Drumcree, the Fatherless Daughter of Feodorovna, Countess of Chertsey:
"They will, like the man who was on a hiding to nothing the first time Tom Sayers saw him, ‘take it lying down’."

Two citations that demonstrate the two possible scenarios given above come from The Times and The Sunday Times, from the 1970s:

1975 - The Sunday Times "The Indian batsmen were on a hiding to nothing. They could not win."

1977 - The Times "Derby know they are on a hiding to nothing at Fourth Division Colchester, who have a reputation as giant-killers."

 

[sarant]

Η Ντέρμπι έχει μόνο να χάσει από το ματς με την Κόλτσεστερ...

Αλλά για τους Ινδούς, λέμε "χαμένοι από χέρι"

 

[drsiebenmal]

Αλλά για τους Ινδούς, λέμε "χαμένοι από χέρι"

Ή χαμένοι για χαμένοι.

 

[daeman]

...
On a hiding to nowhere

Q From Reg Tydell: I don’t think you’ve covered On a hiding to nowhere? A search on the web turns up usage, but no history. My understanding of the phrase’s meaning is “a hopeless endeavour”.

A This British idiom much more commonly appears as on a hiding to nothing. That’s the version I learned as a child and which I would use without questioning it. But yours, I have now learned, has been appearing since the 1970s, though it is greatly outnumbered by the other.

The idea behind it is that you’re faced with a situation in which every outcome is going to be unfavourable and in which true success is impossible. That sounds like your “hopeless endeavour” but there is more to it. The saying implies that even if you do succeed you’ll get no credit for it while failure will leave you in disgrace.
...

We know we’re on a hiding to nothing. If we don’t win the game by more than three or four goals, we’ll get no credit, only criticism.
The Mirror, 22 Mar. 2013.​

...
Hiding to nothing has throughout its history most often turned up in sports contexts. It starts to appear in print around the end of the nineteenth century in reports of horse racing. Early users took care to explain it, so they clearly expected their readers not to know what it meant. My guess is that they wanted to share an item of racing-stable jargon to add colour and make them seem insiders:
...

His trainer, whoever he might be, would have been in the unenviable position of being on “a good hiding to nothing” — in other words, he would have got no credit if Flying Fox had won, and if he lost would have come in for a good deal of adverse criticism.
Liverpool Mercury, 19 Mar. 1900.
​

...
The other form — the one with nowhere — may have grown up in more recent times because users were no longer sure which sense of the word hiding was meant. If it was putting something out of sight, then nowhere would seem to fit better than nothing. But we’re sure hiding is in the same sense that an angry parent would once use to a wicked child: “I’ll give you a hiding!” [στδ. «Θα σε γδάρω ζωντανό!»], meaning a beating or flogging on the child’s skin — his hide. That sense of hiding can be traced to the end of the eighteenth century.

The phrase is putting the two words in opposition. The alternatives are nothing, a result not worth having, or hiding, figuratively a demeaning defeat. I hear in the formulation an echo of the way in which horse-racing odds are usually expressed (three to one, five to four). And might a jockey’s whipping of his mount during a race have contributed to its genesis? I rather suspect it did.

World Wide Words, Saturday 22 June 2013



Big Dipper riding
we'll give the local lads a hiding
if they keep us from the ladies
hanging out in the penny arcades...

 

[dharvatis]

Τη φράση αυτή τη διάβασα για πρώτη φορά σε ένα βιβλίο σχετικό με ιπποδρομίες και την ερμήνευσα μάλλον σύμφωνα με την τελευταία φράση της παράθεσης του δαεμάνου: ο τζόκεϋ δέρνει αλύπητα το άλογο, παρόλο που δεν έχει τίποτα (ή καμία ελπίδα) να κερδίσει. Η ερμηνεία από το Phrase Finder, όπου το to υποτίθεται ότι δείχνει εναλλακτικές εκβάσεις, δεν δικαιολογεί το on a...: το x-to-y odds, που δίνει ως παράδειγμα, θα ταίριαζε με at, όχι on.

 

[daeman]

...
Νομίζω ότι το on συνοδεύει το we're (δηλαδή η πλήρης φράση είναι being on a hiding to nothing), όπου το we're on σημαίνει πάμε για. To to για αντιπαράθεση όπως στο one to nil, π.χ.

 

[dharvatis]

Ακριβώς: δεν θα έλεγες ποτέ we're on five-to-one odds ή we're on one to nil, το πολύ να έλεγες we're at one to nil. Άρα, το to δείχνει προορισμό, όχι αποτέλεσμα, και το hiding είναι ο καλπασμός προς τον προορισμό, με το απαραίτητο μαστίγωμα.

ΥΓ: Και συνεπώς, εγώ μπορεί να το απέδιδα και διαφορετικά - π.χ. «κάνουμε απέλπιδες προσπάθειες», «πολεμάμε άδικα/άσκοπα» και άλλα τέτοια.

 

[daeman]

...
Ναι, τώρα που το λες, μπορούμε να την αναλύσουμε και έτσι: πάμε για να μας γδάρουν και προς τι; Για το τίποτα.

Ωστόσο, για τα αγγλικά και μάλιστα εποχής (αρχών του 20ού αιώνα, όπως λένε παραπάνω) και μάλιστα σε αθλητικό-ιπποδρομιακό συγκείμενο, διστάζω να αμφισβητήσω όσα γράφει ο Κουίνιον. I certainly give him the benefit of authority. :)