winner-take-all

• winner take all, winner-takes-all, winner takes all, winners take all

winner-take-all (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to a contest, election, or other competition in which only the winner is rewarded and none of the losers get anything.
   • 1993 Dec. 7, David Spanier, "Poker: Winner takes all," The Independent (UK) (retrieved 20 May 2014):

     You need luck in poker tournaments, because in the nature of this winner-take-all style of play, there will be several occasions when you cannot avoid putting all your money in the pot.

   • 2000 Jan. 3, Kathleen L. Barber, "Letters: Diversity on the Ballot," New York Times (retrieved 20 May 2014):

     Under winner-take-all elections, many minority candidates find it nearly impossible to win.

   • 2012 March 13, Silas Lesnick, "Interview: The Hunger Games’ Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson," ComingSoon.net (retrieved 20 May 2014):

     [S]he volunteers to take her sister's place at the annual "Hunger Games", a bloody winner-take-all competition in which 24 teens fight to the death.

2. (economics) Of a market in which a product or service that is only slightly better than its competitors gets a disproportionately large share of revenue.
3. (computing) Of a neural network model: organized so that neurons in a layer compete with each other for activation.