come off second best

come off second best (third-person singular simple present comes off second best, present participle coming off second best, simple past came off second best, past participle come off second best)

1. To be defeated in competition; be on the losing side.
   • 1950 March, Michael Robbins, “Dr. Lardner's "Railway Economy"”, in Railway Magazine, page 153:

     He was elected to the chair of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in 1827 at the newly-founded London University, and became prominent in railway controversies in the 'thirties, when he came off second best in a dispute with Daniel Gooch about the effects of speed on the human frame.

• second best

• “come off second best”, in Collins English Dictionary.