Acertainty; inescapable fact: not early enough to move no tables, that's a lead-pipe cinch/ calls Coleco Vision a ''lead-pipe cinch'' for making a strong showing at Christmas
Something very easy; cinch, piece of cake: a lousy lead-tight cinch that any freshman in law school could have won
[1898+; fr the fact that a lead pipe can be easily bent, in case one has bet on such a feat]
Idioms and Phrases with lead-pipe cinch
lead-pipe cinch
A certainty, an assured success. For example, “An engagement ain't always a lead-pipe cinch” (O. Henry, The Sphinx Apple, 1907). This colloquial expression is of disputed origin. It may allude to the cinch that tightly holds a horse's saddle in place, which can make it easier for the rider to succeed in a race; or it may allude to a cinch in plumbing, in which a lead pipe is fastened with a band of steel to another pipe or a fixture, making a very secure joint. [ Late 1800s ]