A neck-and-neck race.
1833. There we were at rip and tuck [sic], up one tree and down another.—J. K. Paulding, ‘The Banks of the Ohio,’ ii. 61 (Lond.).
1836. It will be like the old bitch and the rabbit, nip and tack every jump.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 16 (1846).
1846. Then we’d have it again, nip and chuck.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 123.
1857. I had a big fight over one great fellow [trout] that tumbled out of the pan: I got him by the head and the dog got him by the tail, and it was nip and tuck, pull Dick, pull devil: the dog a little ahead, for the fish broke in two, and he got mor’n half.—Knick. Mag., l. 498 (Nov.).
1884. It was nip and tuck, neither animals gaining nor losing perceptibly.—Katharine S. Macquoid, ‘The Manor-house of Kersuel,’ Harper’s Mag., lxix. 369/1 (Aug.). (N.E.D.)
1888. From this time on, Old Probabilities and the ground-hog will have it nip and tuck, with the chances in favor of the hog.—Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 4 (Farmer).
