English · Idiom Candidate

circle the drain

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to be in a downward spiral and nearing collapse

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

trong một xu hướng đi xuống và gần sụp đổ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: going around a drain

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company has been circling the drain since the loss of its major investor

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (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 “circle the drain” mean?

to be in a downward spiral and nearing collapse Literally: going around a drain

Is “circle the drain” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

👁 Views 0 today 0 past 7 days 0 this month 0 all time