- handicap
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n.1. a race or other contest in which certain disadvantages or advantages of weight, distance, time, etc., are placed upon competitors to equalize their chances of winning.2. the disadvantage or advantage itself.3. any disadvantage that makes success more difficult: The main handicap of our business is lack of capital.4. a physical or mental disability making participation in certain of the usual activities of daily living more difficult.v.t.5. to place at a disadvantage; disable or burden: He was handicapped by his injured ankle.6. to subject to a disadvantageous handicap, as a competitor of recognized superiority.7. to assign handicaps to (competitors).8. Sports.a. to attempt to predict the winner of (a contest, esp. a horse race), as by comparing past performances of the contestants.b. to assign odds for or against (any particular contestant) to win a contest or series of contests: He handicapped the Yankees at 2-to-1 to take the series from the Cardinals.[1640-50; 1870-75 for def. 8; orig. hand i' cap hand in cap, referring to a drawing before a horse race]
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In sports and games, a method of offsetting the varying abilities or characteristics of competitors in order to equalize their chances of winning.Handicapping takes many, often complicated, forms. In horse racing, a track official known as the handicapper may assign weights to horses according to their speed in previous performances; the presumed fastest horse must carry the most weight. In golf, two unequal players may have a close match by allowing the poorer player a handicap, a certain number of uncounted strokes based on earlier performances. In sailboat racing, dissimilar boats compete under handicapping formulas that add time to the faster boats' actual elapsed time for a race; thus, the winner of a race may not be the first to finish but rather the boat that performs best in relation to its design. See also bookmaking; gambling.* * *
▪ sportsin sports and games, method of offsetting the varying abilities or characteristics of competitors in order to equalize their chances of winning. Handicapping takes many, often complicated, forms. In horse racing, a track official known as the handicapper may assign weights to horses according to their speed in previous performances; the presumed fastest horse must carry the most weight. In trotting, horses sometimes start at different points; the horse thought to be the best in the race has to run farther than any other. In golf, two unequal players may have a close match by allowing the poorer player a handicap, a certain number of uncounted strokes based on earlier performances. The same system applies to 10-pin bowling. In sailboat racing, dissimilar boats compete under handicapping formulas that add time to the faster boats' actual elapsed time for a race; thus, the winner of a race may be not the first to finish but rather the boat that performs best in relation to its design.In the United States the term handicap also denotes the process of setting the odds for two teams in a baseball match, or for the horses in a race, and so on. These odds are assumed to properly reflect the respective winning chances, with a built-in profit margin for the bookmaker (bookmaking) or casino accepting bets according to them. A professional oddsmaker is often called a handicapper in American gambling parlance.* * *
Universalium. 2010.