Someone who narrowly fails to achieve the success or position expected of them in their particular field.
〈英，非正式〉差一步者，功败垂成者
he was destined to be one of the game's nearly men
Example sentencesExamples
But only last Tuesday did he advance from being a nearly man to a squad member.
The victory ended McEwen's tag as the nearly man of this year's Tour.
It was either the decisive moment of the Tory leadership election campaign or the last hurrah of a politician shortly destined to join the nearly men of British politics.
Thus he joins the long roster of nearly men, those who got close but didn't get the cigar, who for one reason or other missed out on the ultimate prize.
In his own words, Pearce is a nearly man, a player who never quite reached the pinnacle, who lost in too many semi-finals, who never won titles.
This is undoubtedly the case but without the second world war he would now surely be a tangential figure, a nearly man.
Munster and Leinster have got to show that they are no longer nearly men.
It is a tremendous bonus and you can't tag us as being nearly men.
‘We don't want to be nearly men we want something tangible as evidence of our improvement,’ said the Leinster skipper.
We played some good football but in the end we were the nearly men.
He had become something of a nearly man this summer, having been named in the squad for the first four Tests of the summer without getting on to the field.
His side gained plaudits for their considered football and some careful tinkering of the squad over the summer, could see Rochdale make the leap from nearly men to serious contenders.
Mac was destined to be the nearly man his entire life.
At long, long last - golf's perennial nearly man, wins his first major.