Citations:point-stealer

English citations of point-stealer

Something one does to "score points" off of a rival

• 2007, Cara Whedbee, The Point System, page 22:

  Molly begins a smear campaign against her former friend that she is a whore who has slept with half the football team, and that she has some scary STD as a result (none of which is true, because Sally is a virgin), thus taking back some of their lost points, although in a war like this, she can never gain all of them back —cheating is the biggest point-stealer of all—a theme I will expound upon soon.

Someone who gets undeserved credit

• 2019 May 16, Thomas A. Merrill, “The Professional Volunteer Fire Department: Becoming an Officer”, in Fire Engineering:

  Look in the mirror and be honest with yourself and aware of your reputation. What is it? Are you lazy? A minimal contributor? A point stealer (showing up for credit without ever contributing anything)?

A player in a sport who manages to prevent their opponent from scoring points, or who manage to unexpectedly score points

• 2019 May 20, Curt Hogg, “Jadin O'Brien steals the show as DSHA and Menomonee Falls win team titles at the Greater Metro Conference championships”, in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

  Reegan Schmidt also placed third in the 400 with a time of 59.95 and Laetitia Faye was second in the 100 hurdles. They represent two of DSHA’s potential point-stealers in La Crosse.

Something that prevents one from achieving points

• 2000, Laurie Rozakis, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Well, page 292:

  The single biggest time-waster (and therefore the single biggest point-stealer) is getting hung up on one aspect of the assignment.

• 2008, Rosemary Hamilton, Only When I'm High: The Runways of a Southern Belle, page 58:

  My main rival had been banned from pageants altogether after showing up drunk at a judges' luncheon and peeing about six feet short of the restroom (a definite point stealer, but grounds for disqualification? Hardly).