on the skids
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Declining or deteriorating rapidly
Literally: sliding on skids
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
A race lost, a father murdered, a career on the skids — they were no more than the opening scenes of a nightmare which was engulfing her.
ICI, up 5p, unveiled the name of its new drugs and chemicals business, but was cagey about precise plans for demerger.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “on the skids” mean?
Declining or deteriorating rapidly Literally: sliding on skids
Is “on the skids” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.