deep water
3
5.9
- noun
- /dip ˈwɔːtər/
- Informal
:
problemas serios
- Sunday night, the remaining teams will run through Moscow, Russia, and find themselves struggling—literally—in deep water in this week's challenge.
And so I got a, you know, I got thrown into deep water right away.
- And so I got a, you know, I got thrown into deep water right away.
- And so we're in really, really deep water here.
- And those things can help to kind of like get you out of that deep water that you think you're stuck in because you're never stuck there.
Examples
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You really went into deep water on this one.
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You're in deep water, kid.
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And so I got a, you know, I got thrown into deep water right away.
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So, but again, I I would just say I'm in deep water here and I'm maybe over my head.
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There are always some people getting into deep water over copyright infringement and domain names.
Blog text (24) -
And those things can help to kind of like get you out of that deep water that you think you're stuck in because you're never stuck there.
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After failing to submit my report on time, I found myself in deep water with my manager.
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If you don't resolve these issues quickly, you could get into deep water with the board.
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He realized he was in deep water when he couldn't answer any of the questions during the interview.
Synonyms
21
4.0
A situation where a person is in trouble because of something they did
19
5.6
A difficult situation that forces someone new to cope
12
4.1
In trouble because you did something wrong
12
7.4
Too involved in a problem or situation to get out easily
3
9.4
In a difficult situation with no easy way out
How Serious
2
7.4
- Informal
3
5.9
41
3.0
- Informal
8
4.2
∞
2.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The idiomatic meaning is a metaphorical extension of the literal words: 'deep' (very deep) + 'water' (body of water) suggests danger or difficulty, so a learner who knows both words could plausibly infer a sense of serious trouble. However, the specific sense 'a situation involving serious trouble' is not strictly compositional and requires some figurative mapping, so it is only partially predictable.
Etymology
The idiom deep water may come from the simple image of being in water so deep you cannot stand and are in real danger. That's why it now means 'in serious trouble'.