primrose path
2
8.8
- noun
- /ˈprɪmroʊz pæθ/
- Literature
:
camino de rosas
- Choosing a life of constant pleasure may seem appealing, but it often leads us down the primrose path to ruin.
- led down the primrose path
And he said at the time then that America is leading Ukraine down what he called the Primrose path.
- And he said at the time then that America is leading Ukraine down what he called the Primrose path.
Examples
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"That isn't for me to say, but you seem to be leading someone who trusts you down a primrose path.
Fiction book (1995) -
Did that xenologist ever lead us all down the primrose path?
Fiction book (1999) -
Don't take them down to Primrose path and then leave them by the side of the road, OK?
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Well, don't they grow along the primrose path?
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Does your client get to sit there like a potted plant and lead the court down the primrose path?
Blog text (25) -
We've watched this nation follow conservative national security and economic policies down a primrose path of destruction, and now Democrats are leading the way.
Blog text (2) -
The pursuit of an artistic vocation was no primrose path in the fledgling republic.
Academic text (1997) -
"Who's leading you down this primrose path?" Glendora asked contemptuously.
Fiction book (1999) -
Something about those trollers puzzled him, a certain erratic quality to their progress, as if they rolled arm in arm along a primrose path.
Fiction book (1994) -
The votes Obama has locked down are the votes that he gained from people, young and old, black, white, and all others, who took the time to do actual independent research instead of blindly taking the word of Fox talking heads calling themselves independents and then leading them down the Republican primrose path to willful ignorance.
Blog text (28)
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
primrose + path
The constituents 'primrose' (a pleasant flowering plant) and 'path' (a way) transparently convey an attractive or easy route, so a learner knowing both words could infer the idea of a pleasant or indulgent way of life. However, the conventionalized warning that this ease ‘may lead to ruin’ is not derivable from the literal words alone and is idiomatic, so the expression is only partially predictable.
Etymology
The idiom primrose path may come from the image of a road covered in primrose flowers, where the pretty path looks easy and pleasant to walk. People used that picture for a life that seems nice but can lead to trouble, so 'primrose path' now means an 'easy and pleasurable' way that may end in 'ruin'.