comeback kid

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a person who achieves a remarkable recovery from a position of apparent defeat, failure, or irreversible setback, demonstrating resilience and the ability to turn situations around when others have written them off; the phrase was attached to Bill Clinton after his second-place finish in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic primary, which he spun as a moral victory despite expectations of his campaign's collapse; in sport, a comeback kid is the player or team that repeatedly finds ways to win from losing positions or to return to form after injury, controversy, or slump; the archetype celebrates the qualities of determination, psychological strength, and the refusal to accept apparent failure as final