Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
screen door on a submarine

screen door on a submarine

9.5
Something completely useless because it cannot work where it is used
  • 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

dud
vsscreen door on a submarine
  • Informal
20 4.7

Something that fails to work or please people

stresses uselessness because it is fundamentally unsuited rather than merely failed
total waste of time
vsscreen door on a submarine
8 3.9

An activity that uses your time but does not help you

highlights fundamental unsuitability rather than mere unproductiveness
as useful as a screen door on a submarine
vsscreen door on a submarine
  • Informal
9.9

Having no real use

is the same idea but given as a brief label not a simile
as useless as tits on a boar hog
vsscreen door on a submarine
  • Offensive
9.9

Something that has no real purpose or value

means the same but uses neutral wording instead of coarse humour

Antonyms

useful
865 1.0

Helps you do practical tasks or solve a problem

How Useful

measure
  • Formal
647 3.8
screen door on a submarine
  • Informal
9.5
gesture
237 3.2

Surface Forms

screen door on a submarine singular
screen doors on submarines plural

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'.