a drowning man will clutch at a straw
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Also seen as: a drowning man will grab at a straw · a drowning man will grasp at a straw · a drowning man will grab at straws · a drowning man will grasp at straws
A desperate person will try anything to survive
Người tuyệt vọng sẽ cố gắng bất cứ điều gì để sống sót
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “a drowning man will clutch at a straw” mean?
A desperate person will try anything to survive Literally: a person drowning grasps a straw for buoyancy
Is “a drowning man will clutch at a straw” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.