screen door on a submarine
- idiom
- Informal
:
tan útil como una puerta de malla en un submarino
- Her efforts to keep secrets in that family were as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
Examples
-
Trying to fix that problem with a quick patch is like putting a screen door on a submarine.
-
Investing in that project is like installing a screen door on a submarine.
-
Debating with him about the rules was a screen door on a submarine.
-
This plan is just a screen door on a submarine.
-
Debating with him about the rules was a screen door on a submarine.
-
Her efforts to keep secrets in that family were as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
-
Trying to fix that problem with a quick patch is like putting a screen door on a submarine.
Synonyms
14
4.7
Something that fails to work or please people
4
3.9
An activity that uses your time but does not help you
1
9.9
Something that has no real purpose or value
Having no real use
Antonyms
How Useful
Surface Forms
Morphology
screen + door + on + a + submarine
The metaphor is directly inferable from the constituents: a 'screen door' (a mesh door) placed 'on' a 'submarine' (a vessel that operates underwater) would be pointless or counterproductive because it would let water in. This obvious real-world incompatibility makes the expression's meaning ('useless' or 'unsuited to its context') immediately clear to learners who know the component words.
Etymology
Screen door on a submarine is a saying that gives a clear, silly image: a screen door would let water into a submarine, so it would not work at all. That's why people use it to describe something 'useless or pointless'.