dead in the water
15
6.5
- idiom
:
estancado
- Budget negotiations may be dead in the water after this week.
- a ship dead in the water
- the economy is dead in the water
- go dead in the water
My personal feeling is like short films are kind of dead in the water nowadays.
- My personal feeling is like short films are kind of dead in the water nowadays.
- If you give it up by studying the wrong things, you're dead in the water.
- On Tuesday though, Donald Trump U turned and called off talks, saying talks are dead in the water.
Examples
-
If we overlook those channels, we'll continue to be dead in the water as we are today.
Blog text (31) -
We're dead in the water.
-
The investigation was dead in the water.
Fiction book (2000) -
The conversation is dead in the water.
Fiction book (1998) -
Otherwise, this team is dead in the water in 2013.
Blog text (29) -
After 45 years, America's foreign bilateral assistance program lies dead in the water.
Academic text (1994) -
The company's plans for expansion are dead in the water due to lack of funding.
-
After the latest failure, the project was declared dead in the water and abandoned.
-
Without any support from the board, her proposal was dead in the water before it even started.
Synonyms
133
2.7
With no chance of success or getting better
28
4.9
A job or situation that gives no chance to move up and get better
3
6.3
Unable to move forward because of a physical problem or other difficulty
Being without hope of getting better or succeeding
Certain to fail and unable to recover
Antonyms
How Viable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'dead' (not functioning) + 'in the water' create a sensible image of something immobilized or stalled (like a boat), so a learner could infer a sense of being stopped. However, extending that physical image to the abstract meaning 'having no chance of succeeding' for projects is metaphorical and context-dependent, so the exact sense is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom dead in the water comes from boats: when a boat's engine stops or there is no wind, the boat lies dead and cannot move in the water. So, the phrase now means 'unable to continue or succeed'.