See screen door on a submarine on Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "The idea of a screen door (mesh door to keep insects out) on a submarine is considered to be highly impractical. There are no insects underwater for a screen door to keep out. A screen door also allows water to pass, so it would cause the submarine to sink if it's the only door between the interior and the outside world.", "forms": [ { "form": "screen doors on a submarine", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "screen doors on a submarine" }, "expansion": "screen door on a submarine (plural screen doors on a submarine)", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ { "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [ "Entries with incorrect language header", "Entry maintenance" ], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w" } ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1995, The Economist, volume 336, numbers 7921-7925, Economist Newspaper Limited:", "text": "But realists put the final number of jobs saved through privatisation at no more than 800. \"It's about as useful to us as a screen door on a submarine,\" says an angry mayor's office in Sacramento .", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2005 July, Rich Beattie, “Trigger Happy”, in Boating, volume 78, number 7, →ISSN, page 123:", "text": "I doubt anybody would give you static about unloaded and stored long guns anywhere in U.S. waters, and few places would about handguns (although unloaded guns are as useful as a screen door on a submarine).”", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2016, Rocky Heckman, Designing Platform Independent Mobile Apps and Services, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:", "text": "If you don't know what security vulnerabilities look like at the code level, then having the source code is just as useful as a screen door on a submarine from a security perspective.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "something that is useless or absurd" ], "id": "en-screen_door_on_a_submarine-en-noun-QI-sCyuM", "links": [ [ "useless", "useless" ], [ "absurd", "absurd" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(idiomatic) something that is useless or absurd" ], "tags": [ "idiomatic" ] } ], "word": "screen door on a submarine" }
{ "etymology_text": "The idea of a screen door (mesh door to keep insects out) on a submarine is considered to be highly impractical. There are no insects underwater for a screen door to keep out. A screen door also allows water to pass, so it would cause the submarine to sink if it's the only door between the interior and the outside world.", "forms": [ { "form": "screen doors on a submarine", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "screen doors on a submarine" }, "expansion": "screen door on a submarine (plural screen doors on a submarine)", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English countable nouns", "English entries with incorrect language header", "English idioms", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English nouns", "English terms with quotations", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1995, The Economist, volume 336, numbers 7921-7925, Economist Newspaper Limited:", "text": "But realists put the final number of jobs saved through privatisation at no more than 800. \"It's about as useful to us as a screen door on a submarine,\" says an angry mayor's office in Sacramento .", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2005 July, Rich Beattie, “Trigger Happy”, in Boating, volume 78, number 7, →ISSN, page 123:", "text": "I doubt anybody would give you static about unloaded and stored long guns anywhere in U.S. waters, and few places would about handguns (although unloaded guns are as useful as a screen door on a submarine).”", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2016, Rocky Heckman, Designing Platform Independent Mobile Apps and Services, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:", "text": "If you don't know what security vulnerabilities look like at the code level, then having the source code is just as useful as a screen door on a submarine from a security perspective.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "something that is useless or absurd" ], "links": [ [ "useless", "useless" ], [ "absurd", "absurd" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(idiomatic) something that is useless or absurd" ], "tags": [ "idiomatic" ] } ], "word": "screen door on a submarine" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (b81b832 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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