From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcertcert /sɜːt $ sɜːrt/ noun → be a (dead) cert
Examples from the Corpus
cert• One candidate, the outgoing Taoiseach and the then leader of Fine Gael, was a cert.• Of course Carvill's Hill started off a dead cert, yet he limped home badly beaten.• It could also provide a dead cert for some future Gold Cup.• I knew my sons had been saying that of course Mum would cry - it was a dead cert!• No, this was a dead cert.• This combination of cert hit movie and attached hit record proved too much for Hollywood to ignore.• And I figured that it would be more than a racing cert that it was situated in another alleyway.cert.cert.1 SEthe written abbreviation of certificate2 the written abbreviation of certified 