on the skids
4
8.2
- idiom
- Informal
- After several poor decisions, his business is on the skids and struggling to survive.
- career is on the skids
Examples
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The Second Lien Modification Program, which was announced back in April, seems to be on the skids.
Blog text (22) -
Coney's on the skids.
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The steel plant was already on the skids before.
Blog text (13) -
The detective business must be on the skids.
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My career was on the skids, mate.
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Harold had been saying Shepheard's was definitely on the skids.
Fiction book (1997) -
The big news is not that another narcissist is on the skids, but that so many are in denial.
Blog text (25) -
"Maybe you could dress up a little yourself," he said, "so we don't start any rumors about New York One's on the skids."
Fiction book (1994) -
(Obviously your life's still on the skids)
Blog text (14) -
A bunch of old truck drivers and ex-rodeo bums on the skids, half of them not even able to walk across the stage.
Fiction book (1999)
Antonyms
How Declining
Surface Forms
Morphology
on + the + skids
The phrase evokes the image of something slipping or sliding (a 'skid'), so a learner who knows the constituents could infer a metaphorical sense of sliding into trouble; however, the specific idiomatic sense of sustained decline or financial/professional difficulty is conventionalized and not fully predictable from the parts. Because the meaning relies on a culture-specific metaphor and has become an idiomaticized phrase, it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The phrase on the skids may come from old work moving heavy loads: people put a load on skids (wooden runners) and let it slide down a hill. If something was already on the skids, it was sliding toward trouble and hard to stop, so today on the skids means 'in decline' or 'failing'.