like buzzard over a carcass
- idiom
- Informal
:
como un buitre sobre un cadáver
- The reporters descended like buzzard over a carcass after the scandal broke.
Examples
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When news of the bankruptcy broke, reporters swarmed the building like buzzard over a carcass.
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She hated how they hovered around her like buzzard over a carcass after her mistake.
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Competitors waited like buzzard over a carcass for the company to fail.
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Don't act like buzzard over a carcass!
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Competitors waited like buzzard over a carcass for the company to fail.
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The reporters descended like buzzard over a carcass after the scandal broke.
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She hated how they hovered around her like buzzard over a carcass after her mistake.
Synonyms
1
8.3
Asking people for money and help without giving anything back
In a way that uses others to get money or power
In a very aggressive way to beat rivals
Antonyms
How Opportunistic
- Informal
17
7.2
28
6.8
1
6.9
68
2.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
like + buzzard + over + a + carcass
This is a straightforward simile: combining 'buzzard' (a carrion-feeding bird) with 'over a carcass' evokes the clear image of a scavenger waiting to take advantage, so the predatory/opportunistic sense is directly inferable from the parts. Cross-linguistically similar vulture/buzzard metaphors exist, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words (especially that a buzzard feeds on carcasses) will very likely understand the intended meaning.
Etymology
Like buzzard over a carcass comes from the sight of a buzzard circling a dead carcass, waiting to eat. So, it describes people who hover and wait 'to take advantage' of someone else's misfortune.