to hit the skids
3
8.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
ir a la deriva
- He hit the skids.
- career hit the skids
- marriage hit the skids
Examples
-
This story might be best laid out like this: I'd moved to Florida, had tried to make a place for myself there, and in the middle of my second year had gone and fallen in love with a woman named Hannah Gates, although things between us were beginning to hit the skids; my friends John and Samantha were staving off the urge to chuck in the tattered white towel.
Fiction book (1998) -
In 1972, Tony Bennett hit the skids.
Academic text (2011) -
The actor had hit the skids.
Fiction book (2001) -
He's gone and JT's program has hit the skids.
Blog text (25) -
Only late in the day did jeans appear as the uniform of choice among some modish faculty as well as students, long after starched fashions had hit the skids in other parts of the country.
Fiction book (2000) -
I very nearly hit the skids again early last year (damn rapid-cycling) and still have the odd rough patch, but I can look now at where I am and where I've come from and think,
Blog text (30) -
Pre-Idol, JLo's singing and acting career hit the skids after her 2010 movie The Back-Up Plan failed at the box office, and she was dropped by her longtime record label, Sony Music Epic Records.
Blog text (26) -
"The drug use got out of hand, the 'techniques' began to show serious flaws, with a number of tragedies resulting in crime or madness, and the whole idea of human beings becoming 'psychic supermen' hit the skids.
Blog text (33) -
Instead of moving every prospective partner into her house, which inevitably resulted in several weeks of misery when the whole thing hit the skids, why not indulge in all your wildest fantasies, live life to the edge, go where you want to go, and do what you want to do with whomever strikes your fancy?
Fiction book (2002) -
The company's profits have hit the skids after the recent scandal.
Synonyms
28
4.4
To fall suddenly in price or value
16
4.1
To fall suddenly by a large amount, for example in price or activity
7
5.4
To fall suddenly, for example by tripping or by losing value
5
4.8
To go through a short time with problems after a good time
4
6.3
To fall suddenly and a lot in value or reputation
1
8.2
Suddenly become much worse or fail after being stable
1
7.4
Start having serious problems that lead to failure
Suddenly stop or fail because of a big problem
A situation that suddenly goes wrong after working well
Antonyms
How Serious
350
4.1
- Informal
3
8.4
- Informal
37
3.9
466
3.2
9
3.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
hit + the + skids
The literal parts ('hit' + 'skids') do not straightforwardly yield 'begin to fail' for a learner because 'skids' is relatively low-frequency and the idiomatic sense ('on the skids' = in decline) is metaphorical rather than compositional. However, there is a plausible conceptual link (skids → sliding/loss of control → decline), so some learners may partly infer the gist from the constituents but would still need exposure to fully grasp the idiomatic meaning.
Etymology
The phrase hit the skids may come from carts or cars that began to slide on smooth wooden or metal runners called skids. When a vehicle 'hit the skids' it lost control or stopped working well, so now the phrase means 'to begin to fail or decline'.