"sinking ship" meaning in English

See sinking ship in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-sinking ship.ogg Forms: sinking ships [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} sinking ship (plural sinking ships)
  1. (idiomatic) Something which is doomed; an impending debacle; an ongoing disaster. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: lost cause Derived forms: like rats from a sinking ship Translations (something doomed): uppoava laiva (Finnish), sinkendes Schiff [neuter] (German), süllyedő hajó (Hungarian), tonący okręt [masculine] (Polish), то́нущий кора́бль (tónuščij koráblʹ) [masculine] (Russian), tha na h-eòin a' falbh às a' chreig (Scottish Gaelic)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sinking ships",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "sinking ship (plural sinking ships)",
      "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": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "like rats from a sinking ship"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 2, in When a Man Marries:",
          "text": "He said that […] Bella had been perfectly right to leave him, because he was a sinking ship, and deserved to be turned out penniless into the world.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II (The Education of a Personage), page 255:",
          "text": "[…]you can play around with girls without being involved in meshes of sentiment, and you can do anything and be justified—and here am I with the brains to do everything, yet tied to the sinking ship of future matrimony.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter IX, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:",
          "text": "My word, won't it be funny when there's no Tevershall pit working. […] And now the men say it's a sinking ship, and it's time they all got out.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 May 30, Haitham Maleh, “Opinion: A Peace Plan in Name Only”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-08-01:",
          "text": "[T]he only future for Syria is without the Assad political dynasty. […] The government is a sinking ship.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something which is doomed; an impending debacle; an ongoing disaster."
      ],
      "id": "en-sinking_ship-en-noun-M7oOYQvP",
      "links": [
        [
          "doom",
          "doom"
        ],
        [
          "impending",
          "impending"
        ],
        [
          "debacle",
          "debacle"
        ],
        [
          "ongoing",
          "ongoing"
        ],
        [
          "disaster",
          "disaster"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Something which is doomed; an impending debacle; an ongoing disaster."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "lost cause"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "something doomed",
          "word": "uppoava laiva"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "something doomed",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "sinkendes Schiff"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "something doomed",
          "word": "süllyedő hajó"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "something doomed",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "tonący okręt"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "tónuščij koráblʹ",
          "sense": "something doomed",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "то́нущий кора́бль"
        },
        {
          "code": "gd",
          "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
          "sense": "something doomed",
          "word": "tha na h-eòin a' falbh às a' chreig"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-sinking ship.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/60/En-au-sinking_ship.ogg/En-au-sinking_ship.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/En-au-sinking_ship.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sinking ship"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "like rats from a sinking ship"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sinking ships",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "sinking ship (plural sinking ships)",
      "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",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Hungarian translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 2, in When a Man Marries:",
          "text": "He said that […] Bella had been perfectly right to leave him, because he was a sinking ship, and deserved to be turned out penniless into the world.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II (The Education of a Personage), page 255:",
          "text": "[…]you can play around with girls without being involved in meshes of sentiment, and you can do anything and be justified—and here am I with the brains to do everything, yet tied to the sinking ship of future matrimony.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter IX, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:",
          "text": "My word, won't it be funny when there's no Tevershall pit working. […] And now the men say it's a sinking ship, and it's time they all got out.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 May 30, Haitham Maleh, “Opinion: A Peace Plan in Name Only”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-08-01:",
          "text": "[T]he only future for Syria is without the Assad political dynasty. […] The government is a sinking ship.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something which is doomed; an impending debacle; an ongoing disaster."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "doom",
          "doom"
        ],
        [
          "impending",
          "impending"
        ],
        [
          "debacle",
          "debacle"
        ],
        [
          "ongoing",
          "ongoing"
        ],
        [
          "disaster",
          "disaster"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Something which is doomed; an impending debacle; an ongoing disaster."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "lost cause"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-sinking ship.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/60/En-au-sinking_ship.ogg/En-au-sinking_ship.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/En-au-sinking_ship.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "something doomed",
      "word": "uppoava laiva"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "something doomed",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "sinkendes Schiff"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "something doomed",
      "word": "süllyedő hajó"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "something doomed",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "tonący okręt"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "tónuščij koráblʹ",
      "sense": "something doomed",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "то́нущий кора́бль"
    },
    {
      "code": "gd",
      "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
      "sense": "something doomed",
      "word": "tha na h-eòin a' falbh às a' chreig"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sinking ship"
}

Download raw JSONL data for sinking ship meaning in English (3.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (ce0be54 and f2e72e5). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.